Some systems theory and geographical concept software is exciting. To get the most out of good software however, there needs to be the backing of a strong curriculum, and teachers knowledgeable in their subject-area as well as in the best ways technology helps to support student learning. Tech support for teachers, enabling them to continue working with students while someone else fixes crashed computers, is essential. In its absence, while teacher wrestles with equipment, girls abandon their computers in favor of chatting, while boys find non-productive ways to use theirs. Exposure to computers during the same period may interfere with these.
TV is worse, being even more passive and currently more time-consuming.
Some question the wisdom of introducing children to current computer technology at a young age, arguing that what they now learn will have become obsolete by the time they are old enough to really need it. Preferable might be priority for computers in high school, then middle school and upper elementary. Our current students may have 8-10 careers within their lifetime, and will have to confront issues that we have not even heard of. They will be faced with an exponentially expanding information base, uncertainty, decisions that must be made in the absence of sufficient, or sufficiently validated, information, and having to live with problems that are insoluble. All this suggests that we should aim to help students become efficient lifelong learners who are generalists rather than specialists.