I was intrigued by an article in the New York Times about a father/son experience with Apple's free Summer Camp. These are three-hour sessions to teach youngsters ages 8-12 about various Apple products and how to use them. The sessions include making a movie (iMovie), creating a music CD (GarageBand), doing photography (iPhoto), and producing a multimedia presentation with movies, music, charts, and graphs.

While this is clearly an extremely clever marketing tool, it also provides exciting resources for children to bring to the classroom. As a former teacher, I can't help but think of ways to use these skills: students could create a song about the life cycle of moths and butterflies, a book report in the form of a movie, a photography exhibit about the environment, or a multimedia presentation about our solar system.

Certainly, there are students who don't have access to laptops, cameras, and iPods. But for those who do, let's encourage this kind of technical literacy.