Technological innovations are improving and transforming most areas of American life. Yet our schools continue to be one area that has resisted transformation, operating more or less as they did 150 years ago. This will soon change.

          Consider the large gap between how technology affects a child's life inside and outside of the classroom. At home, the typical child is exposed to technology and information that would have been unimaginable to earlier generations. A child can now go online and have access to unprecedented amounts of information. When a child is online, the answers to most questions are as near as the click of a mouse. Children have the opportunity to communicate with and learn from people thousands of miles away in real time. Social networking is transforming our culture and the way children interact with each other.