As anyone who has been seen this video of a 2 year-old using an iPad knows, Apple's famed touchscreen device has proven an intuitive, interactive, learning tool for children.

Yet creating apps for children - whether that's musical games, learning exercises for children with autism or full-featured e-books - is no easy feat.  Fixing children's attention on an app requires a high degree of ingenuity, interactivity and most importantly, variety.

In a previous post, I criticized holding schools accountable for learning results in a system designed around time. Some may have misunderstood my position, believing I don't think schools should be held accountable. Nothing could be further from the truth. However, if schools are going to be held accountable for learning, then it seems to me the system should be designed around learning.

The past four years I have been involved with a Math and Science Partnership grant.  One strong component of this grant is the intensive two week professional learning that all participants must attend.  Two purposes are always a strong component of this grant.  One teachers need to engage in high levels of mathematics to improve their content knowledge and to explore and reflect on their instructional strategies.  Ten instructional strategies tend to merge every year.   If we could re-tool every math classroom with these strategies, I have no doubt that the United States would become the strongest country on the globe.

1.  Active Engagement
2.  Use of Math Tools
3.  Comparing Different Strategies/Algorithms
4.  Questioning and Risk Free Environment
5.  Problem Solving
6.  Communication
7.  Connection to the Real-World
8.  Estimation and Using Mental Math
9.  Schema Based Instruction
10. Writing and Reflecting on Learning