There are five types of Instruction Software Functions which include:

• Drill and Practice: This includes flash cards or fill in the chart activities, and feedback is usually just correct or try again.  It is generally more effective to have a student come up with their own short answer rather than having a multiple choice problem.  Drill and practice is very beneficial because it provides the student with immediate feedback and saves the teacher time.
• Tutorial:  There are two types of tutorial software, linear, and branching.  A linear tutorial provides the same instructional sequence of explanation, practice, and feedback to all learners regardless of differences in their performance.  Where as branching tutorials direct learners along alternate paths depending on how they respond to questions.  A good tutorial should be very interactive, contain good graphics and keep a good record of a users progress.  Benefits of tutorials are very similar to drill and practice in that they provide immediate feedback, and are time saving.
• Simulation:  A computerized model of a real or imagined system that is designed to teach how the system works.  It is hard to set a good criteria for a simulation because there is such a wide variety of types and uses for a simulation.  Simulations are beneficial because they allow the students to reamin interactive with the lesson and they are also cost effective.
• Instructional Game: these games are meant to be fun to keep the children excited by adding game-like rules and/or competition to learning activities.  While selecting an instructional game it is important to make sure that it is appealing to the students while at the same time having a solid instructional value.  These games are important in the classroom because they keep it fun and intersting for the students.  If the students are not having fun they will stop paying attention.
• Problem-Solving: problem solving software can be content area focused or not content area focused.  They are designed to help children solve problems as the name implies.  When selecting a problem-solving software it is important to make sure that it is challenging and interesting.  This type of software keeps students interested and motivated.

I think that games can be a very beneficial tool used in the classroom. It can be very hard to keep students focused sometimes during normal lectures because they can be quite boring for students. By mixing it up every once in a while and playing a game you are able to captivate the mind of a student, and keep them interested in the information you were trying to teach them. A very common example I can think of is having the students play team Jeopardy as a review before a test. Many times the students are playing for a small prize like a piece of candy or something and they really want that piece of candy so they're going to give their all in this game. Since their playing in groups they have to work together to come up with answers, and that also helps the students to develop their social skills and how to be a team player. If a teacher to just give a normal review with a piece of paper telling you what's on the test, the students would miss out on the social interaction that they gained from playing the game, and probably wouldn't retain as much information because they were not as interested as they would have been if they're playing a game.