Boys have a natural affinity for computers. It can often be hard to tear them away from the little screen. And with ICT increasingly seen as a pillar of modern education, it's natural to assume that computers can play an important role in helping underachieving boys raise their standards.

There is growing research that establishes that ICT is motivating, and for boys in particular. Chris Comber, a Lecturer in Education at Leicester University, who specialises in both ICT and gender issues, says: "Boys are more confident in ICT and use it more frequently, particularly at home, so it seems to be an obvious leap to say let's use ICT as way of re-engaging boys in learning. Certainly, it's a way of engaging them, but is there any evidence that it works?"

Comber was involved with the case studies for the government agency Becta's recently published ImpaCT2 study into the effect of ICT on educational attainment. He found that a number of teachers referred to the motivating result of using ICT with boys. It's especially useful for literacy, he says, "which is a key marker for boys' underachievement and affects the rest of the curriculum.

"Lots of boys don't like writing and they're more willing to explore it, trying out different styles and composing longer pieces, using computers. Many boys have difficulty with presentation and neatness and find handwriting a chore."

ICT can raise the level of motivation, and if used wisely, can have an impact on boys' achievement, Gary Wilson of Kirklees School Effectiveness Service concludes. He is the service's Effectiveness Coordinator for raising boys' achievement, an organisation seeking how it can most effectively use ICT to help boys.

"It's most useful to help boys develop research skills, and structure their written work," he says. "They tend to be weak at presentation and do generally need that help. It's also very useful for modern foreign languages, especially video-conferencing links with schools abroad which is hands-on and a very boy-friendly activity."

But computers are no panacea, he warns. "People think boys and computers go together and obviously must raise achievement, but imagining these things happen almost by osmosis is totally incorrect. It's not just a question of giving boys a laptop - they need help and guidance on how to do it. Ask a boy to find out something on the internet, for instance, and he will cut and paste something, stick it into Word, hand it in and call it research. He probably hasn't even read it."

ICT use needs to be well thought out and schools have to be aware of the wider issues of raising boys' achievement, says Wilson, especially how to engage them and deal with their complacency.

"Boys massively overestimate their ability and think they can get somewhere without expending any effort. They're also the best barometers of good teaching, and need to know the aims and outcomes of a task - if they don't see why they should do it, they won't do it."

Angela McFarlane, Professor of Education and Director of Learning Technology at Bristol University, agrees that the idea that simply putting something on the computer will raise boys' standards is wrong. "After all, it ain't what you do, it's the way that you do it," she says. "The links between ICT and attainment are extremely complex and people constantly look for simple answers, but sadly there aren't any. If you simply give boys a whole load of meaningless tasks, using a computer is not going to improve their attainment any more than anything else."

There is no substitute for good teaching, says Mike Johnson, Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Education at Keele University. Johnson has worked for seven years on raising boys' attainment.

"The evidence shows clearly that ICT well used is motivational, but getting the pedagogy right is fundamental," he says. "Many computer packages are simply instructional and don't have much impact. What counts is the interaction between the teacher and the pupil with the materials.

"Some software is incredibly powerful, but teachers are not really conversant with it and a lot of time is spent on the technology rather than teaching with it. Creating an IT environment is one of the ways forward, but training is really not adequate at the moment for teachers to make effective use of it."

Comber agrees that teachers need to be careful to engage boys in appropriate activities to achieve productive or effective learning. "That's not easy when you've got a computer suite full of 20-30 kids. It's difficult to make sure they're paying attention to the right task. Boys in particular are more likely to go shooting off to internet sites or taking short cuts. Their tendency is not to plan or reflect, and to try and finish work quickly, and that's not going to be changed by using ICT."

Boys, being often highly computer literate, can also be particularly demanding of ICT at school. A lot of school software is not particularly exciting, McFarlane points out - the budgets for educational software development are a fraction of those for computer games. Many packages are therefore too unsophisticated, with poor graphics and design quality. School hardware is often out of date.

Most schools are also still in the early stages of ICT use, with teachers getting to grips with computers. "They all accept that it is has great potential for learning and teaching but they're still in the beginning stages of integrating it fully into their practice," says Comber. "The amount of time that ICT is used by the average student in the average primary school is relatively small. Even if you have identified appropriate use of ICT in your lesson, access is still limited."

One answer, he believes, is for teachers to make use of boys' increasing access to ICT at home. "There is tremendous potential to capitalise on that through homework tasks, but it depends on teachers having the awareness and ability to set tasks that students can work on independently. Some boys, for instance, either have few books at home or will never pick one up unless forced to. Using the internet for research at home, for instance, is an engaging way of working and provides them with access to attractive written resources."

The do's and don'ts of ICT teaching

• DO use ICT to produce a graph to represent boys' progress. It can be a powerful tool to show them where they're at, and where they need to go.
• DO make sure there is whole school awareness of the broader issues of boys' underachievement and how ICT can help and what role it can play.
• DO draft computer-literate admin and support staff into the ICT suite, so they can be positive role models for boys and offer them instant help. If boys are stuck with their hands up for ages waiting for assistance, they will lose focus.
• DON'T let your kit get out-of-date. Make sure you have the best hardware and software your school can afford. Boys will be turned off by equipment that is five years old.
• DON'T use computers as a carrot even though they are a great motivator.
• DO consider setting up an e-buddy scheme with another school. Boys are much more likely to pay attention to things like spelling and grammar if they know they are writing for an audience elsewhere.
• DON'T make assumptions that all boys are 'like this' and all girls 'like that'. Not all boys will be motivated by using ICT. There isn't a 'one size fits all' solution.
• DON'T leave it too late. The earlier you introduce boys to ICT, the better. They are not nearly as self-conscious at Key Stage 2 as at Key Stage 3.
• DO look for ways of developing creativity and fun with ICT, such as producing Java applets. Boys respond best to tasks that are short and have an obvious point.