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This isn't just about Compaq vs. IBM PCs, as I had to deal with back in the day. Or Windows vs. Mac OS. It is about supporting everything, like it or not. And doing so on puny IT budgets too.

it serves to focus (or refocus) or attention on the learner experience. All too often we are distracted by the latest and greatest tool and by the priorities of other stakeholders in the process

To the psychologists, sociologists, and generational and media experts who study them, their digital gear sets this new group (yet unnamed by any powers that be) apart, even from their tech-savvy Millennial elders. They want to be constantly connected and available in a way even their older siblings don't quite get. These differences may appear slight, but they signal an all-encompassing sensibility that some say marks the dawning of a new generation.

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The difference is that these younger kids "don't remember a time without the constant connectivity to the world that these technologies bring," she says. "They're growing up with expectations of always being present in a social way — always being available to peers wherever you are."

With summer quickly fading into the distance and school starting again in North America parents are doing their best to gear up for another year. Sometimes it can seem positively overwhelming so before panic strikes, here are some things teachers would love for you to know to make the upcoming year a smashing success.

A Web-browser-based tutoring platform called ASSISTments. Developed at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, ASSISTments, as its name suggests, performs tasks that extend the teacher’s reach in and beyond the classroom. As it generates sets of practice math problems geared to a range of skills, ASSISTments provides hints to students when they cannot answer problems correctly and then furnishes teachers with updated assessments of each student’s progress, as well as aggregated data on the entire class’s performance. The system prompts students to describe the logic they employed in answering specific problems, and teachers can communicate weekly or even daily with parents about their children’s work.