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There is an explosive growth in these tools and this page aims to provide an overview of some of the most interesting examples that are relevant to education.

In an atmosphere of academic excellence, Quest aims to foster the type of learning that is possible today—learning based on access to online resources and tools from around the globe, learning that supports customized content for every student on demand, learning that is game-like in its ability to inspire and motivate. “In an age when low-income urban kids continue to drop out of school at alarming rates, yet research is consistently showing the high levels of engagement youth are exhibiting in various media platforms, it is incumbent upon educators to take notice and indeed redirect teaching methods to meet the needs and interests of students,” says Schwartz.

a robust industry mentorship program allow students opportunities to learn alongside experts, s

critical pedagogic tool in secondary education.”

The change is already well underway, but this change is not being led by teachers, administrators, parents or politicians. Coming from the ground up, the true agents of change are the students within the educational system.

While some may be content to sit on the sidelines and wait until this cultural reorganization plays itself out, as educators you have no such luxury. Everything hits you first, and with full force. You are embedded within this change, as much so as this generation of students.

We make much of the difference between “digital immigrants”, such as ourselves, and “digital natives”, such as these children. These kids are entirely comfortable within the digital world, having never known anything else. We casually assume that this difference is merely a quantitative facility. In fact, the difference is almost entirely qualitative. The schema upon which their world-views are based, the literal ‘rules of their world’, are completely different.

Greenfield's latest book, ID: The Quest for Meaning in the 21st Century, which has just been published in paperback, has become a bible for parents, many of whom possess none of the computing skills that are second nature to their teenagers. Its warning theme is that, as software becomes more sophisticated, increasingly young people opt for escapism rather than real life.