A new U.S. federal study looks at the difference  made by educational software for math and language, and finds that the answer is, surprisingly, … “not much”.

Not surprisingly though, the study has drawn flak from software publishers whose fortunes will very likely be impacted should word of these results get out – a decrease in sales will be a natural upshot if this report becomes widely distributed among educators and parents.

Interestingly, however, the study also has a critic in Harvard professor Chris Dede, who feels that the research methods used for at least some part of the study were flawed.

There is probably enough there, however, to make parents stop and scratch their chins, specially in these tough times, before they head to the cash register from the aisles. Its one thing to keep the child engaged with something wholesome, but quite another to expect a spike in reading and math scores after a workout with the software.

Additionally, the visual & experiential “entertainment value” of purported educational software has fast become a metric for evaluation by a parent. Unlike the generation that grew up on a multi-vitamin diet of Reader Rabbit and JumpStart during the heydays of educational software (the mid-late 90s), most children today are accustomed to high-energy video games and look askance at traditional educational software favorites . (This news story from 3 years attests this view). In other words, the most intellectually nourishing software isn’t always the most engaging.

Moral of the story? Buy educational software only if it comes highly recommended by teachers, friends and forums such as this one. Even better have your child take a test drive at your friend’s or your friendly neighbourhood library before you swipe your credit card. Lastly, moderate your expectations as far as math and reading score improvements are concerned.