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Imagine your confusion if you had to design a system to improve the quality of education in distant underprivileged schools. What if you stepped away from the problem and asked, "What is the simplest 'system' that could work in the real world?" In host Sheela Sethuraman's interview, Randy Wang describes his motivation to create Digital StudyHall, a collection of mundane technologies that have dramatically improved long distance education. His progress and goals are also discussed.

Nathan Torkington gives a very humorous talk about how we can spawn (pun intended) the next generation of open source hackers and teach kids how to use computers. He talks about various aspects of teaching kids and teachers alike. He further explores many different facets of a modern computer environment, including why pictures of people getting their legs bitten of by sharks are fun, why robots are lame, and the effective use of a new programming language called Scratch.

What does the ability to resist marshmallows have in common with a successful life? David Brooks of the New York Times gives a fascinating talk about neuroscience and sociology, what these seemingly disjointed topics have in common, and why he feels that these topics are important. He explores why some people succeed, and why some people don't, and how success fits into the transformation from a global, physical economy to a global, human-capital economy.

Phil Long is on a five-year mission to find out more about how technology can enhance active learning. In this conversation with host Jon Udell, he reviews lessons learned from MIT's TEAL (technology-enabled active learning) initiative, and discusses the related work he and his team are doing at the Center for Educational Innovation and Technology at the University of Queensland in Australia.

America's primary and secondary education lags behind other advanced countries. To improve education levels even to the average of advanced nations would generate enough economic growth to pay for the entire education system. Catching up will require cooperation, national standards, better incentives for teachers, and accountability. In this panel discussion hosted by the New Republic, several experts discuss the way to educational excellence.

We all tend to talk about problems, but the ability to provide concrete solutions is rare. Van Jones sees the recent fires, floods, and foreclosures as clear signs that we are caught in twin crises: economic downturn and environmental devastation. But there is also opportunity. In this panel discussion from The Commonwealth Club of California, Jones and Darrell Steinberg have a unique solution to this complex set of problems.

How are young adults dealing with the issues of elections and government? Are they more or less likely to vote? As a part of the first post-September 11th generation, their opinions and actions are thought-provoking. Amina Al-Sadi, a college freshman, is featured in an excerpt from a public radio special produced by and for teenagers.

Teach For America places thousands of energetic and committed college graduates as teachers in under-resourced schools for their first jobs. In this talk at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Wendy Kopp shares why and how she started Teach for America in 1980, and its progress in raising the bar for under-achieving children. She also discusses how the organization rode out its "dark years," when enthusiasm and corporate support for the effort began to wane.

Do you think we can change the world by involving enterprise one hour a week? Al Jisr, and it's founder Mohammed Abbad Andaloussi, are convinced that we can. In this episode of Design for Change, host Sheela Sethuraman interviews Abbad Analoussi about his efforts to improve education in Moroccan schools by involving businesses. So far, over 100 corporations have adopted over 200 schools. They provide volunteers, support, and a real world perspective to students.

Dictionaries may look like books, but they don't act like them. In this presentation of the O'Reilly Tools For Change conference, Erin McKean, Chief Consulting Editor for American Dictionaries at Oxford University Press, explains the characteristics of books, why the book isn't a good form for dictionaries to take, and how the information in dictionaries could better be disseminated.