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Those are some of the capabilities known as "21st-century skills" - what everyone from CEOs to President-elect Obama says that today's students need for their fast-changing future. In a knowledge economy, the reasoning goes, the ability to articulate and solve problems, to generate original ideas, and to work collaboratively across cultural boundaries is growing exponentially in importance. The challenge for schools is to find ways to shift from traditional rote learning and teach these skills, while still doing due diligence to the three R's. The good news about 21st-century skills, advocates say, is that they can be integrated into core subjects.

Wonderful article on using Web 2.0 to support writing and the teaching of history.

"increasingly, some educators are calling for more attention to the career part of the equation - and questioning whether a traditional four-year college degree is necessarily the best path for everyone. A new report released by Harvard Wednesday states in some of the strongest terms yet that such a "college for all" emphasis may actually harm many American students - keeping them from having a smooth transition from adolescence to adulthood and a viable career. "

Some major computer science programs at top universities are seeing a slight uptick in the number of women going into the programs. Citing statistics from Harvard (up from 13% to 25%) and MIT (a 28% jump in 3 years), and Carnegie Mellon (from 1/5 in 2007 to 1/4 last year.) Most think it is the economy although some attribute programs to get more women interested in the programs.