It is important to make two points here. Intrinsic motivation makes an application compelling. Second, a compelling application empowers its user to do things that are not readily done without the computer system. I suspect that most of us have not thought much about how the spreadsheet and other business software has changed business education. Essentially every high school in the country has replaced its typewriter labs with computer labs.
Students now learn keyboarding instead of typing.
They learn to represent and solve bookkeeping and accounting problems using spreadsheets and other accounting software. The Macintosh computer that first became available in 1984, with its graphic user interface, was woefully underpowered. With the aid of a relatively inexpensive laser printer, the user of such a system could do professional-level desktop publishing. Take a look back at the three components I used to define a compelling application. Clearly, desktop publishing is a compelling application for many people.