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Today's math curriculum is teaching students to expect -- and excel at -- paint-by-numbers classwork, robbing kids of a skill more important than solving problems: formulating them. At TEDxNYED, Dan Meyer shows classroom-tested math exercises that prompt students to stop and think.

The one thing she doesn’t use her cellphone for? Making calls.

For example, although almost 90 percent of households in the United States now have a cellphone, the growth in voice minutes used by consumers has stagnated, according to government and industry data.

Instead of talking on their cellphones, people are making use of all the extras that iPhones, BlackBerrys and other smartphones were also designed to do — browse the Web, listen to music, watch television, play games and send e-mail and text messages.

In relation to classroom practice, students' learning experiences must help them to assume a critical stance when responding to or creating texts. They need to discover how texts are constructed and how they work. Students need to understand what texts are attempting to do and they need to move toward taking an active, meaning-making position with regard to texts. This webcast will explore what critical literacy is, why it is essential, and what it might look like in an elementary classroom. This webcast is intended to promote professional dialogue and positive action toward improving student achievement.

Here are just some of the uses that educators came up with for this feature:

Student group projects – in your class or with a school across the country Teachers collaborating on lesson plans Teachers and students working in the same binder District or school binders that are a collection of resources

Suggestions for school improvement: smaller classes a curriculum related to real life better teacher education teachers make room in the curriculum for the folk-tales of children’s ancestors parents encouraged to visit the school more intimate contact with people outside of school and cooperating with the entire neighborhood

Chop YouTube Videos TubeChop allows you to easily chop a funny or interesting section from any YouTube video and share it.

Balance media skills with life skillsIt's all about balance. But like an acrobat on a tightrope, balance takes effort. Here are some strategies for my high wire act:

Tying shoelaces and riding a bike are not 2 to 5 yr old skills. Too bad the study didn't look at relevant skills for that age set, or they could've done yet another story on computer use in early years of school, but this mismatched data doesn't say much. I do think that downtime is important. Ironically enough, I schedule it in for my kid daily.

Your points are excellent (as always) but I think we as parents should take some lessons from the digital world as well. You allude to this in your last point above - games are excellent for teaching all sorts of things,

In fact, I'm never up in front of the board "teaching" the class for more than 15 minutes at a time. Let me explain:

Key Trends in 2011:

Time-to-Adoption Horizon: One Year or Less Cloud computing Mobiles

Ideas for Educators Who Want 21st Century Students to Tune In

If you are just telling students something they can find on the internet, stop.  Give them the link and use class time to have discussions, do work, or make meaning of the work.

iGeners are almost universally plugged in. Ear buds hang from backpacks, and cell phones are stuffed into every pocket. Instant communication has replaced listening to messages, streaming video has replaced waiting for television shows to start, Xboxes have replaced Ataris, digital images have replaced negatives, and high-speed connections have replaced dial-up modems.

iGeners aren’t always the best students, however! Working quickly instead of carefully, they infosnack their way through class, flitting from instant experience to instant experience. Reading deeply, considering multiple perspectives and interacting with others in meaningful ways is pushed aside in a race for immediate gratification.