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Mobile technology is going to be an unstoppable change agent in education.

Practically every one of our students--rich and poor, wise and less wise--is walking around with a powerful computing device in his or her hand. These students are changing the nature of their education using those devices, whether they realize it or not--and whether we help them or not.

Researchers believe growth in the time kids spend on computers and watching TV, plus a trend in schools toward rote learning and standardized testing, are crowding out the less structured activities that foster creativity. Mark Runco, a professor of creative studies and gifted education at the University of Georgia, says students have as much creative potential as ever, but he would give U.S. elementary, middle and high schools "a 'D' at best" on encouraging them. "We're doing a very poor job, especially before college, with recognizing and supporting creativity," he says.

You and every other so-called multitasker are actually serial tasking. Rather than engaging in simultaneous tasks, you are in fact shifting from one task to another to another in rapid succession. For example, you switch from your phone conversation to a document on your computer screen to an email and back again in the belief that you are doing them simultaneously. But you’re not.

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,

Finnish system is praised extraordinarily highly for its global success, and yet students don’t work terribly hard, have many choices, use technology creatively, enjoy the integration of the arts, and learn in a culture which emphasizes depth over breadth and less is more.

Students are shown researching and collaborating online in their studies, and many classrooms are shown with a wide array of technological units, not just computers.   Students use wikipedia and facebook when researching very current topics, and Wagner explains that there is a culture of trust that is extended to students in their technology usage.

A particularly inspiring moment comes when Wagner reports stumbling across a project at one school, the “Innovation Camp,” in which teams of students are given 26 hours to come up with a new product or service.  

“How is the Kashmir conflict more than just a religious battle?”Instead of raising their hands to respond, the students quietly began typing their answers into their smartphones, laptops and tablet computers arrayed on their desks. Almost immediately, their words appeared on an interactive whiteboard at the front of the class.

Key Trends in 2011:

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

Learning to use a "computer" of this scale may be challenging. But the opportunity is great: The new availability of huge amounts of data, along with the statistical tools to crunch these numbers, offers a whole new way of understanding the world

This Scratch curriculum guide provides an introduction to creative computing with Scratch, using a design-based learning approach.