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So with the caveat that I am only halfway through Mark Bauerline's book The Dumbest Generation, I have some early impressions to throw out there. While I think there is some merit to this side of the debate (much like Keen's Cult of the Amateur) what really bothers me about this book so far is, as the title suggests, this sense that our kids are at fault. Let me put it plainly: our kids are not "dumb" nor is this generation "dumb" simply because they spend a lot of time in front of television screens and computers or because they haven't worked out for themselves how to get smarter using the Read/Write Web.

Free preview book on how e-books are changing the reading process.

Free Kindle download for a limited time.

"The National Association for Child Development and Blue Whale Apps have announced the release of their breakthrough app aimed at assisting children and adults with speech and articulation. The application, "Speech Therapy for Apraxia-Words," which is part of their NACD Home Speech Therapist line, is now available on the App Store, Google Play, Amazon App Store, and Barnes & Noble App Store for the iPad, Kindle Fire, Nook, and Android Tablets."

"We pledge to stop saying "I'm not good at math" and approach math with a growth mindset. We will work hard to grow our math understanding, attitude, and outlook. We know that, With Math, We Can…do anything."

"Last week Amazon dumped an avalanche of new Kindles on us. Huzzah for reading! Except, um, who wants to buy a whole library of ebooks? Here's a list of 375 free books formatted for iPad/iPhone, Kindle, or for your plain old computer screen."

A Google Chrome extension that lets you enter a search phrase and then lets you click and click on results from 9 different searches (Google, Yahoo, Bing, Wikipedia, YouTube, Wolfram, Amazon, Ebay, Twitter). Nice way to make comparisons.

"For about a month in the spring of 2013, I spent my mornings at Lakeside School, a private school in Seattle whose students are the scions of the Pacific Northwest elite. The beautiful red-brick campus looks like an Ivy League college and costs almost as much to attend. The school boasts Bill Gates among its alumni, and its students come from the families of Amazon and Microsoft executives. Unsurprisingly, there is no dearth of technology: Teachers post assignments on the school's intranet; classes communicate by email; and every student carries a laptop (required) and a smartphone (not). In this context, what do parents do when they think their children need an extra boost? I was there as a substitute tutor for students spanning the academic spectrum. A few of them were taking honors calculus. They were diligent but wanted a sounding board as they worked on tough problems. Others, weighed down by intensive extracurricular activities, struggled in geometry and algebra. I would review material with them and offer pointers as they did assignments. Yet another group required no substantive help at all. They just needed some prodding to finish their homework on time. Despite their differences, the students had one thing in common: What their parents were paying for was extra adult supervision."

This is how it works: You enter the email address of a person. (Think about it: searching by email address is much more precise than by a person's name. How many "Robert Lees" do you think there are in the world?) Spokeo then searches the public records of fifty social sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Flickr, Amazon Gifts, and the blogosphere. Then Spokeo produces a report of matches that it's found.

"Amazon today updated its Kindle app for iOS, adding a slew of new features for all users and students specifically. You can download the new version now directly from Apple's App Store."

"If you got a new ereader or tablet for Christmas-or if you have an old one that needs an infusion-Amazon and Apple would be happy to sell you ebooks and movies to fill it. Or you could just load up on these free goodies instead. The lists of free stuff, compiled by Open Culture, include ebooks, movies, audio books, online courses, language classes, and textbooks, all formatted for your device of choice. You should take some time to peruse the selection yourself today, but here are a few highlights to get you started."