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counteract the New WWW's potentially harmful impact on youth, educators must use technology to create learning experiences that are real, rich, and relevant.

Next will come 4G, in which data rates are expected to be 100 times faster than those in this first 3G wave. As the delivery platform of broadband content and functionality shifts from computer to personal device, we will be surrounded by a multimedia aura that accompanies us wherever we go

The plan is that you'll use your phone to spend money everywhere, all the time.

Top 10 Predictions for 2011 (with proof!)

Textbooks are dead! For real this time!

Assessment will be comprehensive and constant!

robbing kids of their ability to concentrate

The question, though, is: distraction from what? And also: What’s inherently wrong with distraction?

Formal education, as we’ve framed it, is not only about finding ways to learn more about the things we love, but also, equally, about squelching our aversion to the things we don’t — all in the ecumenical spirit of generalized knowledge.

You hear two opinions from experts on the topic of what happens when kids are perpetually exposed to technology. One: Constant multitasking makes teens work harder, reduces their focus, and screws up their sleep. Two: Using technology as a youth helps students adapt to a changing world in a way that will benefit them when they eventually have to live and work in it. Either of these might be true. More likely, they both are. But it is certainly the case that these kids are different—fundamentally and permanently different—from previous generations in ways that are sometimes surreal, as if you'd walked into a room where everyone is eating with his feet.

It's as if Beatlemania junkies in 1966 had had the ability to demand "Rain" be given as much radio time as "Paperback Writer," and John Lennon thought to tell everyone what a good idea that was. The fan–celebrity relationship has been so radically transformed that even sending reams of obsessive fan mail seems impersonal.

The teens' brains move just as quickly as teenage brains have always moved, constructing real human personalities, managing them, reaching out to meet others who might feel the same way or want the same things. Only, and here's the part that starts to seem very strange—they do all this virtually. Sitting next to friends, staring at screens, waiting for the return on investment. Everyone so together that they're actually all apart.

they’re much more likely to say that spending time interacting with each other online has a positive impact on their social-emotional lives than a negative one.

, we found that for all the public attention to the amount of time kids spend with digital media, parents are logging almost as many hours as their kids

Generally speaking, the press coverage of these issues is not well balanced, and the public mostly hears negative and alarming stories about cell phone addiction and cyberbullying and children holed up alone in their rooms.

Today’s teens live in both a real and virtual community, and the latter has infinite libraries and schools, radio stations, shopping malls, game arcades and much more. Their time in that community can’t be quantified, because it’s entirely integrated into their lives. It shapes and reflects their identities.

I believe that our interactions with technology have become so instinctual and embedded that we can’t accurately answer a “how many minutes” question.

The real promise of the new technology is that it can bridge the distance between teacher and students, between students and texts, in truly innovative ways. But it takes time and understanding of the new applications and devices to make good on this promise.

Children’s days are over-scheduled with sports, arts, functions and additional classes. Yet the need to connect and socialize has not gone away in these overly adult-managed times.

Many of the young people interviewed here said they would actually rather be hanging out with friends in real spaces than posting updates in online spaces, but the hemmed-in reality of their lives makes that nearly impossible.

We teachers are not “digital immigrants.” We are their guides, and our role, along with parents, has never been more important, nor more complicated.