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The future is now at Boston's Lilla G. Frederick Pilot Middle School. In last week's most-clicked ASCD SmartBrief story, we learned about this school with no textbooks, one laptop per student, parent-teacher IM conferences, and online drop boxes for homework assignments. Leveled software is used to differentiate learning experiences, and built-in automatic assessments help teachers pinpoint students' instructional needs. Advances in technology have also expanded the role of online courses in shaping schools-digital curriculum is going global and, some say, decreasing the number of teachers needed in a classroom. Replacing outdated textbooks with laptops, increasing student engagement, and more focused one-on-one instructional time-is there a downside to increasingly automated learning?

Acceptable Use Policies developed as a result of legislation that attempted to govern how schools allowed students to use the Internet. While legislation usually did not directly call for their formation, it was sort of the implementation of choice for most schools around the country. The policy is basically a signed agreement documenting what's acceptable in using the Internet at school (although as Karl Fisch stated, it is really an unacceptable use policy as most of them are just a list of things that kids cannot do). Parents and students had to sign the AUP before they were granted any Internet privileges at school. In that way, it was sort of like a contract between the school and the student's family.