"We have supposedly been in the midst of an educational back-to-basics movement since the 1983 release of "A Nation at Risk," a report by a national commission that said American society was in danger of deteriorating because of an eroding public education system. Why, then, have reading scores (as measured by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a test often called the nation's report card), been flat since 1971? One obvious answer is that even if we're getting back to basics in school, kids read less and less outside of school. Think of all of the new technologies that compete for their time: they have ipods, video games, text messaging, instant messaging, cell phones. Who has time to read? Surprise! Americans read more now than they did in 1980. A lot more, according to an exhaustive study done at the University of California, San Diego."

"Idea Mapping is a powerful whole-brained visual thinking tool that enhances memory, note-taking skills, thought organization, planning, creativity, and communication. It uses color, keywords, lines and images to connect thoughts associatively. Idea Maps are the natural expression of the way the brain processes information associatively."

"Zoho Challenge is a powerful, feature-rich software that automates and streamlines online test creation, distribution and evaluation/scoring process. Zoho Challenge is ideal for Schools, Teachers, Coaching Centers and Organizations to quickly and efficiently administer tests for students, employees and candidates."

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The AppGap is a blog and resource on the future of work and how new tools are addressing age-old challenges of organization, collaboration, and creation. But it is also an idea: that there remains a gap between the toolset that exists and what's needed.