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Our children do not read; they only surf. They do not write; they only text. They do not plan and strategize in games; they react to visual and aural stimuli while inflicting simulated mayhem. They do not follow a plot: they cut among disjoined images in the style of rap videos.

Learning how to learn is the point of education

It is mouth-foaming, howling-at-the-moon madness, and it is our mainstream culture

The obsession with digital classrooms goes back to president Bill Clinton, who called for more computers in the schools in 1997. After 15 years of failure, the Barack Obama administration's National Education Technology Plan ''calls for applying the advanced technologies used in our daily personal and professional lives to our entire education system to improve student learning.''

The obsession with digital classrooms goes back to president Bill Clinton, who called for more computers in the schools in 1997. After 15 years of failure, the Barack Obama administration's National Education Technology Plan ''calls for applying the advanced technologies used in our daily personal and professional lives to our entire education system to improve student learning.'' [4]

Learning how to learn is the point of education. We will forget the great majority of specific things we were taught: Euclidean proofs, the polynomial theorem, Roman emperors, French grammar, atomic weights, the poems of Browning, and whatever else was stuffed in our heads as schoolchildren.

The Waldorf movement diverges radically from the mainstream. It tends to recruit crunchy-granola rebels against urban civilization who love acoustical instruments and handicrafts, as well as philosophy graduates of major universities with a deep interest in metaphysics. Some of the classical curriculum of the German Gymnasium of a century ago is preserved as if in amber. And the fact that so many of the Masters of the Universe of the digital age send their children to this countercultural throwback is a fair gauge of the degradation of mainstream learning.

Somehow, I don't think that's what Shakespeare meant by "as you like it." Web access in this case is simply a pretext to help seventh-graders to reduce Shakespeare to their own level, rather than allow Shakespeare to lift children up to his.

Once children had limitless opportunities for gratification, abetted by ever-more-realistic (and ever-more violent and perverse) computer simulations, the psychology profession observed that attention spans shortened drastically, and presumed that a genetic deficiency was to blame.

A seventh-grade English teacher roams among 31 students sitting at their desks or in clumps on the floor. They're studying Shakespeare's As You Like It - but not in any traditional way. In this technology-centric classroom, students are bent over laptops, some blogging or building Facebook pages from the perspective of Shakespeare's characters. One student compiles a song list from the Internet, picking a tune by the rapper Kanye West to express the emotions of Shakespeare's lovelorn Silvius. [6]

"blow your mind."

It could be because of the addictive effects of video game

. While there is no formal diagnosis of video game addiction in the medical literature at present, the similarities it shares with other compulsive psychological addictions, like gambling, may make it a legitimate disorder.

might even help children better develop their brain

visual acuity, attention, and certain cognitive functions

skills that translate well into real-world applications.

l. Underuse of this area of the brain was, in one study, shown to cause difficulty concentrating and socializing, as well as mood alterations and changes in behavior

ideo games can keep users on the edge of their seats, but that might not always be a good thing

Kids who played non-violent, collaborative games were much more likely to be helpful and cooperative with their peers than those who played neutral or violent games, proving that games can have a positive impact on behavior.

In one study, teen males who play violent games were compared to those who played few or no games

Regular video gameplay can improve hand-eye coordination.

Playing video games may be therapeutic for those struggling with trauma.

Video games are becoming part of treatment programs for a number of conditions, most prominently PTSD