Computers are here permanently and will pretty much guide the future of society. This fact mandates that children learn early to make effective use of a computer.

Nursery and Primary Schoolers and Computer Education

Computer education is important even in small countries like Cameroon and a recent 2 day seminar proved this. Attending this seminar were school officials from 10 of Cameroon's provinces who voted to implement an extensive communication and information technology program for their nursery and primary school students.

This initiative was begun because educator's began to realize that their children could not be productive as adults unless they were give the tools they needed to keep up with the computer-related technologies that now drive today's world. Education topics will now include training on the different parts of a computer along with relavent software and how it is used. Along the way, children will be encouraged to adopt the same method of information filtration that computers use so effectively.

Cameroon schools are facing one big problem with this new initiative and that is a lack of computers. They simply do not have enough to get through the daily educational process let alone a new extensive computer training program. It has been decided that, until new computers can be purchased, the younger children will be taught about computers using only pictures and the actual computers will be reserved for the older children. All teachers, however, will be required to take a extensive computer technology training program.

Scottish experts have spent time studying video games and how they affect a child once they enter school. Their studies have shown that, especially mathematically, a child's learning abilities are improved significantly by playing video games regularly.

This study consisted of 32 different schools and was conducted by Learning and Teaching Scotland. The study required the students that participated to play a video game, Nintendo DS, for a specific period of time each day for the duration of the experiment. This study was the second and a follow up to the one previous done in Dundee. Officials wanted to determine if the study would show any different or improved results.

At each school, the children were divided into two different groups. One group was allowed a certain amount of time each day to play video games. The other group were forbidden from any video game playing during the experiment. At the end of the experimental time, a test was given to all students to see how much they had progressed during that time. All of the children improved their scores, but the children who were allowed to play the video games showed a much higher rate of learning than did the one who were forbidden to play. The children who played the video games were also able to complete their tests much quicker than the ones who did not play. These results suggest that computer training through the use of video games may have more value than had been previously assigned.

Children are increasingly becoming better educated in personal computers and other components. This computer training will be very effective in preparing them to live in a mainly computer driven society. Who knows what kind of invention our children will be able to develop with their extensive knowledge of computers.