National Research Council

About the author: The National Research Council (NRC) is the research arm of the National Academy of Sciences, a private, nonprofit scholarly society that advises the federal government on scientific and technical matters. The following viewpoint is excerpted from How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School, which summarizes the findings of a two-year project in which the NRC evaluated new developments in the science of learning.

Computer technology has the potential to dramatically enhance students' educational experience. Computer-assisted education is interactive and therefore captures students' interest better than one-way communications such as lectures or videotapes. Educational software can be used to present both real-world problems and abstract concepts. In addition, tutoring and testing software can be used to analyze students' strengths and weaknesses in a variety of subject areas. The Internet and other networked...