For decades, technology has been the driving force behind globalization, accelerating change and the tremendous economic, social, geopolitical, and cultural shifts of the 21st century. It has profoundly changed life in the United States and around the globe.

Today's adolescents have grown up with technology. On average, 13- to 18-years-olds spend more than six hours a day using digital media. As consumers, they collectively control more than $175 billion annually. As students, they are often disengaged by an education system that hasn't capitalized on the power of today's technologies. Outside of school, they instant message, download and listen to music, compose and send text messages and emails, view television, exchange text messages and digital images via cell phone, browse the web, and play interactive games?all the while multitasking. Such facility with technology should not be mistaken for expertise or literacy with technology. Most students are in woeful need of conventions of technology prowess?conventions that will enable them to use technologies expertly as informed consumers, critical thinkers, creative producers, and socially adept and effective communicators.

In the best-selling book, The World Is Flat, author Thomas Friedman warns there is "no turning back," reminding us that technological influences have irrevocably redefined our world.1 Savvy educators agree. In fact, a profound transformation is taking place in many progressive schools across the country. Innovative educators are embracing a bold new catalyst to learning: 1 to 1 computing. The "laptop for every student" concept is changing how, when, and where students learn. The potential of 1 to 1 learning is maximized in schools where these technology tools are deployed in classrooms characterized by academic rigor, real-word experiences, and high-quality teaching that incorporates research on how people best learn.

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