Mat622

Despite all the bring-your-own device buzz over the last few years, meanwhile, teachers were chillier to handhelds (smartphones and iPod touches—the devices students tend to bring to school) than other tools. While the percentage of teachers with access to such devices went up to 36 percent, from 26 percent a year ago, the tools were rated below other devices (sixth out of a list of eight, even below projectors) on "potential to enhance education."

In general, the survey says, teachers view technology as a "teaching tool used by teachers" rather than an "administrative tool" or a "self-learning tool used by students."

Einstein once said, “Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex… It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.”

foster creativity by allowing self-expression and having students pick their own topics

"This is my eleven year-old," he said, "who, on one machine, is playing Minecraft and, on the other machine, is watching videos on how to play Minecraft." This is how our students are learning. They are teaching each other and they are learning from the Web.

Casap pulled his own phone from his pocket. "What you have in your hand is going to be their Commodore 64. It's going to be their Apple IIe. When they're in their twenties, it's going to be the thing they buy at a thrift store and put on a shelf in their hipster apartment just because it's cool to have one." That's the generation, he said, that's coming into our schools, and we need to be ready for that.

"Learning doesn't happen Monday through Friday, from this time to that time," he said. "This generation of kids are growing up consistently learning all the time."