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digital devices are increasingly viewed as a means to bring students together in collaboration, rather than separate them further.

In the late 1990s, the Singapore Ministry of Education unveiled its master plan for technology. The first phase was spent building up infrastructure and getting computers into schools. In the 2000s, in phases two and three, the ministry focused on training teachers in how to use gadgets and identifying schools to experiment with new innovations.

there is great research from MIT and Tufts showing how kids as young as 4 years old can learn very sophisticated computer science concepts if you get the mouse, keyboard and syntax

But some professors say it’s traditional teaching methods – not the computers – that don’t belong in the classroom. To engage students, they argue, the way instructors use and talk about technology with their students needs to change.

at what age should you buy your child a cellphone? And when you do buy that first phone, what kind should it be?

There is no age that suits all children, developmental psychologists and child safety experts say.

buying any kind of phone with Web access essentially allows their children unsupervised access to content and tools, like social networking and videos, that they may forbid on the home computer

These play to a primitive impulse to respond to immediate opportunities and threats. The stimulation provokes excitement — a dopamine squirt — that researchers say can be addictive. In its absence, people feel bored.

one hears that important changes can be effected in education but it will cost money for a new lab of computers, for wireless access and faster routers, for iPads and other new devices. However, as readers explore “Why ___ Matters!”, you will be amazed that the suggested changes and ideas are more about “humanware” than hardware.

Vigdor and Ladd are to be applauded for emphasizing that it is not the technology, but the social conditions of their use that are the most compelling concerns in play here.

You might, for example, set up a book discussion blog, a wiki for collaborative research, or a Google doc for collaborative writing.

By contrast some web apps are perfect for the “one-class stand”

Web 2.0 can optimize collaboration