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The British government is proposing that Twitter is to be taught in primary (elementary) schools as part of a wider push to make online communication and social media a permanent part of the UK’s education system.

Kids will be taught blogging, podcasting and how to use Wikipedia alongside Maths, English and Science.

And it was really fun and tough to try to boil down what I think and believe about school reform to a five minute speech to non-educators. And it's a good thing I talk fast. Enjoy.

Cindi Rigsbee, for example, makes sure her students know when text language is appropriate and, more important, when it's not. She talks frequently in class about types of writing, the intended reader, and the evolution of language. At the beginning of each school year, she introduces a discussion about the way English has transformed over time. "We look at Old English, Middle English, and what was contemporary English in the time of Jane Eyre. Then I show them a MySpace page."

During most of the twentieth century, the United States dominated the math field with its output of important mathematicians and its great strides in engineering, science, and finance. But the depth of the country's decline is apparent in some frightening statistics: Less than one-third of eighth-grade students and fewer than one out of four seniors now test as proficient or better for math, according to recent National Assessment of Education Progress reports.

One technology that jump-starts algebraic thinking for middle school students is SimCalc, a program that uses computer-based graphs, animation, symbols, and tables to make difficult concepts, such as mathematical rates of change and accumulation, easier for students to learn.

Green's university, Coppin State, is one of a few hundred across the country that's using the lecture-archiving system called Tegrity. In Maryland, the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, Salisbury University and the Community College of Baltimore County are using it, too. School officials say the technology is not only helping students stay on pace with course work, it's taking away a prime reason for dropping out.

Since inventing much of the technology behind personal computing in the late 1960s, Alan Kay has dedicated his work to developing better learning environments for children. Now a senior researcher at HP and the president of Viewpoints Research Institute, Kay is launching Squeak, a multimedia authoring tool that allows children to construct dynamic simulations of real-world phenomena. We spoke with him about the unfulfilled promise of technology in schools—and about what computers have in common with pianos.