EDUCATIONAL SOFTWARE: CHARACTERISTICS, TYPES, ADVANTAGES - TECHNOLOGY - 2025

The educational software or is a type of instructional program designed specifically for use by teachers and students to support the teaching-learning process. This software is designed for the sole purpose of facilitating teaching and learning.

For this reason, although other types of software may also be used for teaching purposes, it will only be considered educational software if this is its explicit purpose. The first educational programs appeared in the 60s and 70s of the 20th century, with the PLATO and TICCIT systems being the most important.

As computer technology in general has advanced, so has the technology used for educational software. For example, it is usual today that these programs have components with Internet access.

This software must include activities that are meaningful to the student and result in the acquisition of the knowledge, skills or competencies that the teacher has determined.

For this reason, it is essential that the teacher carefully choose the type of software that best suits his educational objectives.

Main characteristics of an educational software

As mentioned above, educational software is a program specifically created to serve as support at different levels of teaching.

There are certain characteristics that educational software should have to be used by students, although this will depend specifically on the characteristics of the students (age, grade, among others). The main features are as follows:

- They can be used in any field of education.

- They use interactive tools.

- They are versatile, since they must adapt to the characteristics of different types of users.

- It must be easy to use. The most important thing is that the student can use it easily (in case it is used without teacher supervision). That is, you quickly understand how to install it, how to save it and how to run it without further help.

- Depending on the type of software, the educational process can be more directive or more constructivist. The student can take a more guided process in which the answers are given, or a process in which the program does not offer answers but rather seeks for the student to analyze and reach the conclusions himself.

Types of educational software

It is divided into several types depending on the type of educational function it fulfills.

Exercise and practice type

It is also known as exerciser software, as it allows students to work on problems or answer questions and get feedback on the correctness or not of their answers. An example of this type of software is practice tests.

This type of software is designed for students to put into practice their learning of facts, processes or procedures that they have previously studied, as a reinforcement.

Feedback is usually shown through messages like "Very good!" or "No, try again."

Tutorial type

This type of software acts as a teacher, in the sense that it provides all the information and activities necessary for the student to master the subject; for example, introductory information, examples, explanations, practices, and feedback.

These tutorials are designed to teach new content step by step through the entire instructional sequence, similar to what a teacher would do in class, thus allowing the student to work independently.

The objective is that the student can learn the whole subject without having to go to other support or supplementary materials.

Simulation type

It is also known as simulation and seeks to model real or imaginary systems to demonstrate their operation to the student. Therefore, simulations are not used to introduce new content but to practice and apply previously seen content in more realistic environments.

An example of this type of software is a program that is used to dissect a frog and thus learn the same information without having to directly manipulate the animals.

Simulations can teach about something or teach how to do something. This allows students to experience events that for different reasons can be dangerous, expensive or difficult to access.

Game type

This type of software is also known as instructional games and seeks to increase the motivation of learners by adding rules and rewards to exercises or simulations.

These games are characterized by having rules, a great value for entertainment and competitiveness, with the aim of combining fun with learning.

For this reason it is usual for teachers to use it as an activity between their explanations, to maintain the attention and motivation of the students while reinforcing the content.

Problem solving type

This type of software is specifically designed to improve problem solving skills. This can be done through general skill improvement or through content-specific problem solving.

This program must provide the opportunity to solve a problem (through a goal), it must offer a sequence of activities or operations (through a process), and provide a way to perform cognitive operations to reach the solution.

In this way, students have the opportunity to create hypotheses and put them to the test to try to solve the problems presented.

Advantage

- The exercise and practice software has as something positive that it gives immediate feedback to the learner and that motivates students to perform exercises that on paper could be more boring, for example, for mathematics, language, etc.

- Tutorials improve student motivation and give immediate feedback, plus the student can go at their own pace

- Simulations are especially advantageous for scientific subjects, since they allow to quickly see processes that usually could not be observed, in addition to facilitating the performance of experiments and tasks that could entail some danger.

- Instructional games have great value in motivating students.

- Problem solving software provides opportunities to put this skill into practice in a controlled way.

Disadvantages

- It is a type of software that can be misused by teachers and be applied to topics that are not appropriate to be repeated in this type of exercise.

- A disadvantage of the tutorials is that they do not allow the student to build knowledge on their own, but rather they are given a unit already programmed.

- As for instructional games, they can often detract from the intrinsic motivation of the task of learning itself and focus too much attention more on winning the game than on learning.

- In relation to problem solving programs, it is not clear to what extent the acquisition of these skills through software will transfer to the students' day-to-day life.

References

1. Bocconi, S. and Ott, M. (2014). Bridging the Concepts of Educational Software and Assistive Technology. In M. Khosrow-Pour (Ed.), Educational Technology Use and Design for Improved Learning Opportunities. Information Resources Management Association
2. Cennamo, K., Ross, J. and Ertmer, PA, (2013). Technology Integration for Meaningful Classroom Use: A Standards-Based Approach. Wadsworth Publishing.
3. Doering, A. and Veletsianos, G. (2009) Teaching with Instructional Software. In MD Roblyer and A. Doerings (Eds.), Integrating Educational Technology into Teaching (73-108). New Jersey: Pearson Education.
4. Pjanic, K. and Hamzabegovic, J. (2016). Are Future Teachers Methodically Trained to Distinguish Good from Bad Educational Software? Practice and Theory in Systems of Education, 11 (1), pp 36-44.
5. Ramazan, Y. and Kılıç-Çakmak, E. (2012). Educational interface agents as social models to influence learner achievement, attitude and retention of learning. Computers & Education, 59 (2), pp 828-838.