Cognitive Interfund Transfer

Have we reached the limits of our traditional school system's capacity to deal with the diversity of learners that come into our schools today?

To do this we need to shift our thinking from a goal that focuses on the delivery of something -- a primary education -- to a goal that is about empowering our young people to leverage their innate and natural curiosity to learn whatever and whenever they need to. The goal is about eliminating obstacles to the exercise of this right -- whether the obstacle is the structure and scheduling of the school day, the narrow divisions of subject, the arbitrary separation of learners by age, or others -- rather than supplying or rearranging resources. The shift is extremely powerful...

We can see an emerging crisis in our schools, while, on the other hand, we see a renaissance for learning. The question then simply becomes: would a completely different perspective that builds on the latter, be a more productive focus for us than the continued, largely unproductive, public debate around the former?

Superintendents say they are attracted to the devices for two reasons: It’s user friendly and inexpensive compared to other technology like laptops.

apToTalk, a free app, turns the iPad into an augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) device. Kidd said children who have a hard time with speaking can use the application to tap on a picture and the iPad will say the word.

"The Internet offers incredible opportunities to build high-level, deep thinkers if we provide the instruction that's needed."

Vicki Collet, a literacy facilitator for the Poudre School District in Larimer County, recently met with a group of middle-school teachers and posed a question: Are kids reading as much as they used to? The unanimous response: More. And yes, that includes novels, not just online fare. But the teachers saw a connection between the two — online information, including social networking, often steers students toward an attractive literary niche. Think "Harry Potter" or even "Twilight." "Then," says Collet, "they read deeply within that genre."