What does this title mean? Put it into Google Translate, or your favorite translation engine, and see. Technology is making it much easier for us to learn other languages.

One of my favorite books in high school was John Steinbeck's Travels With Charley, his account of his road trip around the U. S., late in his career, accompanied only by his French poodle Charley. Not having traveled much as a boy beyond my home state of Illinois, into Wisconsin and Indiana, I was mesmerized by his stories of the vastness and diversity of our country.

Last week, I, along with Tina Barseghian, education editor at KQED-San Francisco (PBS/NPR) and formerly editor of Edutopia magazine, appeared on the popular KQED-FM Forum interview program in northern California, hosted by Michael Krasny. The topic was educational technology. We touched on many of the double-edges of the technology sword: it's part of many problems, such as short attention spans and lack of physical fitness, and part of the solutions.

In my last post, I lamented that LeBron James announced he was going to the Miami Heat the same day that Florida's Teachers of the Year were honored in Orlando, but media attention to these two events was totally misplaced. I also said that "basketball has a few lessons to teach us about learning.

My new book is just out, Education Nation: Six Leading Edges of Innovation in our Schools (Jossey-Bass). You can preview it on Amazon. In it, I pose this challenge: "Imagine an Education Nation, a learning society where the education of children and adults is the highest national priority, on par with a strong economy, high employment, and national security."

As we head into summer vacation and schools are shuttering their doors for three months, we should be rethinking how summer can become the "third semester" for 21st Century learning. At a conference in Washington last week, a colleague was surprised to hear that the long summer break dates back to our agrarian society and the need for young folk to help their families bring in the crops. Today, the vast majority of students don't bring in crops but need to be harvesting knowledge year-round.

The learning landscape is shifting under our feet. It's an exciting and momentous time for technology advances in learning, from the explosion of interest in online courses to free videoconferencing to powerful new devices at lower cost, such as the iPod. Having worked in educational media and technology beginning in the 1970s, I dare say that more change has happened in our field in the last four years than the last 40.

This column inaugurates my biweekly blog on Edutopia.org. I’m excited to contribute to our site on a regular basis and will be writing about the interesting people and places I encounter. I’ll also be discussing some themes and stories from my upcoming book, Education Nation: Six Leading Edges of Innovation in our Schools (Jossey-Bass, July), based upon our recent work at Edutopia, linking to many of our films, articles, and resources.