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OF all the challenges faced by college and high school students, few inspire as much angst, profanity, procrastination and caffeine consumption as the academic paper. The format - meant to force students to make a point, explain it, defend it, repeat it (whether in 20 pages or 5 paragraphs) - feels to many like an exercise in rigidity and boredom, like practicing piano scales in a minor key.

Technology is changing the way schools think about crafting curricula and buying content. But are publishers ready for the changes?

Teens are using online media to extend real world relationships, explore interests, express identities, and expand their independence .... Fewer youth use new media ... to acquire information or cultivate skills beyond what is available to them at school or in their local communities.

We have access to an exponentially growing amount of information to process and apply. There are many excellent tools we can all use to help in constructing and organizing that content. Here's a short selection of some of the more popular ones. They can be used by individuals and also by students or teachers collaborating in groups.

Through the new ASCD iTunes U channel, educators can stay up-to-date with the most recent audio and video professional development content, including ASCD webinars Archived conference presentations Interviews with ASCD authors Video profiles of educators

The future. What do our students really need to know and be able to do to succeed in future education and careers?

This toolkit contains the process and methods of design, adapted specifically for the context of K-12 education. It offers new ways to be intentional and collaborative when designing, and empowers educators to create impactful solutions.

The EdSteps skills were selected to represent skills and competencies that are critical components of preparing students for college and a career, but are currently difficult and costly to assess.

* Lead High-Level, Text-Based Discussions * Focus on Process, Not Just Content * Create Assignments for Real Audiences and with Real Purpose * Teach Argument, Not Persuasion * Increase Text Complexit

The Teacher's Guide to Project Based Learning

When Have You Ever Failed at Something? What Happened as a Result? We pose these questions for students to answer as part of thinking about the broad theme of "failure": how it is defined, what it means and what it can lead to.

Think Twitter is just a waste of time? Think again. Its organizational structure makes it an effective tool for connecting with students and others online

The modern workplace and lifestyle demand that students balance cognitive, personal, and interpersonal abilities, but current education policy discussions have not defined those abilities well, according to a special report released this afternoon by the National Research Council of the National Academies of Science in Washington. A "who's who" team of experts from the National Academies' division of behavioral and social sciences and education and its boards on testing and on science education collaborated for more than a year on the report, intended to define just what researchers, educators, and policymakers mean when they talk about "deeper learning" and "21st-century skills."

"The U.S. Department of Education has declared August Connected Educator Month, and since we'd be nothing without the teachers we've connected with over the years, we're enthusiastically on board. To celebrate, we asked every educator who has written a guest post for us, been featured in a Reader Idea, or collaborated on one of our features to answer two simple questions: What is one important thing you've learned from someone in your Personal Learning Network (P.L.N.), however you define that network? What one person, group or organization would you recommend every educator add to his or her P.L.N.?"

This Minnesota high school's planning team started from scratch and created a 21st century facility that turns the traditional classroom model inside out. Instead of waiting for students to come to class, teachers move about the school equipped with their laptops and other teaching tools.

Lately educators are bringing social networks, interactive whiteboards, mobile devices and other technology into the classroom, with mixed results. Do these technologies benefit students? What are the downsides?

Many scientists want to open up an age-old system of submitting private research to commercial journals that they say is hidebound, expensive and elitist.

The Internet may well have its downsides, but it also has the potential to make us collectively smarter, according to open-science advocate Michael Nielsen. In Reinventing Discovery: The New Era of Networked Science, Nielsen argues that networked digital tools, such as discussion boards and online marketplaces, can make it easier for scientists to pool their data, share methodologies, and find far-flung collaborators.

From reader exchanges across town or around the world, this article offers ideas for talking about books.