Researchers gathering in Boston for the American Psychological Association's annual convention highlighted a series of studies Aug. 17 suggesting that video games can be powerful learning tools--from increasing the problem solving potential of younger students to improving the suturing skills of laparoscopic surgeons.

Ask Amicah Bitten about her home life, and what she likes to do outside of school, and the 9-year-old is cagey, doling out only small details: she reads the J.C. Penney catalog, she likes to swim sometimes, and she knows someone who does drugs, and she hates that.

New Orleans schools chief Paul Vallas recently passed his first major test when fourth and eighth graders in the city's public schools posted significantly higher scores on the state exam--and his plans for using technology to help spur achievement might lead to even further gains.

School districts and universities are taking cues from the business world and instituting four-day weeks, a trend that some say could become the norm as gas prices and energy costs continue to rise.

Recording industry and motion picture lobbyists are renewing their push to convince broadband providers to monitor customers and detect copyright infringements, claiming the concept is working abroad and should be adopted in the United States, CNET reports.

Professors' office hours are just one of the university mainstays going the way of the chalkboard as technology rewrites the rules of classroom communication, reports the Pittsburgh Business Times.

Microsoft on Aug. 19 announced a change in its licensing policy to make it easier for businesses that want the ability to shift server software that is running in a virtual machine from one physical machine to another, CNET reports.

Hard times and higher fuel prices will follow kids back to school this fall, reports the Associated Press: Children will walk farther to the bus stop, pay more for lunch, study from old textbooks, and wear last year's clothes.

As a new school year begins, the time may have come to reconsider how large a role technology can play in changing education, writes Steve Lohr in an essay in the New York Times.