Using Lightspan technology to build school to home connections

Family involvement in children\u27s emerging literacy is critical to their school success. School personnel can support family literacy by becoming acquainted with families and providing home strategies and materials. Teachers can guide caregivers to the resources of the school and public libraries for books and software. Schools can off er caregivers instruction on computers as a learning tool for children. The implementation of school computer lab sessions scheduled at night for families is described. This project was designed to 1) discover the ways families interact while using computers, 2) determine if families enjoyed using the lab together, and 3) document whether participation in the computer lab increased participation in other school events. Educational software monitored in this study was produced by Lightspan Incorporated for use in 1) school computer labs and 2) the Lightspan Achieve Now program, which contains the same software as the lab version but is compatible for use on Sony PlayStations at home. Suggestions for improvement upon the study are also shared