Oak Forest High School's superintendent says the Facebook posting disrupted the school day, and that's why the student was suspended.

The modern American school faces rough challenges. Budget cuts have caused ballooning class sizes, many teachers struggle with poorly motivated students, and in many schools a war is being waged on distracting technologies. In response, innovative educators are embracing social media to fight back against the onslaught of problems. Technologies such as Twitter and Skype offer ideal solutions as inexpensive tools of team-based education.

Part of a wider effort to use technology to extend learning beyond classroom walls and the six-hour school day. Internet buses may soon be hauling children to school in many other districts, particularly those with long bus routes. The company marketing the router, Autonet Mobile, says it has sold them to schools or districts in Florida, Missouri and Washington, D.C.

Are you planning your digital curriculum? These handy lists will help you quickly find what you need.

Author James Surowiecki, author of The Wisdom of Crowds, explains how the decision-making ability of a diverse group of people is more effective than that of individuals.

Months before the newly hired teachers at Philadelphia's Science Leadership Academy (SLA) started their jobs, they began the consuming work of creating the high school of their dreams -- without meeting face to face. They articulated a vision, planned curriculum, designed assessment rubrics, debated discipline policies, and even hammered out daily schedules using the sort of networking tools -- messaging, file swapping, idea sharing, and blogging

Schools should reflect the world we live in today. And we live in a social world. We need to teach students how to be effective collaborators in that world, how to interact with people around them, how to be engaged, informed twenty-first-century citizens.

Brainpop's new unit on Digital Citizenship covers topics like computer viruses, cyberbullying, blogs, copyright, digital etiquette, privacy, online safety, plagiarism, and social networking in their familiar format with Tim & Moby. And best off, it's all free.

Teachable moment: In addition to the three important lessons, the teacher guided students through a process of creating and posting their own version of appropriate rules for cell phones in school. Over five dozen student comments are posted. Interesting stuff.

The annual Horizon Report identifies and describes emerging technologies likely to have a large impact on teaching, learning, or creative inquiry on college and university campuses within the next five years. In each edition of the Horizon Report, six emerging technologies or practices are described that are likely to enter mainstream use on campuses within three adoption horizons spread over the next one to five years. Each report also presents critical trends and challenges that will affect teaching and learning over the same time frame.

Digital Youth Network gives students tools to be engaged, articulate, critical and collaborative. Facilitate the ability to become creators - designers, builders & innovators - who can envision new possibilities.

When South African 7th graders, Shandre Lee Davids and Kirsten Goliath went to school on Friday morning, they might have told an inquiring family member of a whirlwind day ahead. During the course of the school day, under the guidance of their English Teacher, Ms Lesego Raleholi, and accompanied by 17 more of their classmates, they interacted with educators and learners from Beijing, two cities on the East-coast of the USA and two other South African schools in Mafikeng and Cape Town respectively.

Spotlight magazine showcases the projects and people funded by the MacArthur Foundation's Digital Media and Learning Initiative and covers the intersections of technology and learning. We go beyond the research to show how digital media is being used in classrooms and programs around the world.

"Kids' Informal Learning with Digital Media: An Ethnographic Investigation of Innovative Knowledge Cultures" is a three-year collaborative project funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

Will schools pro-actively model and teach the safe and appropriate use of these digital tools or will they reactively block them out and leave students and families to fend for themselves?

Online community headed by the Federal Chief Technology Officer and US Secretary of Education, Arnie Duncan - bringing innovation to Education

The MacArthur Series on Digital Media and Learning is a series of volumes that explore core issues facing young people in the digital world.

Well-integrated technology opens social networks for students and allows children to develop key social skills, according to two recent studies conducted by researchers at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Many general education teachers are turning to differentiated instruction to help them meet their students' diverse learning needs. This Knowledge Brief explains how some standard technology resources already available at most schools - talking text, web resources, graphic organizers, and word processors - can be used to support more tailored instruction. It also tells readers where to find more technology tips