How to address a glaring disconnect between the demands of the new knowledge-based economy and the drill-and-practice mentality currently driving education in many of the nation's classrooms: This was a key theme addressed by the thousands of educators who gathered in Orlando April 2-4 for the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) annual conference.

Guided by a federal law often criticized for its reliance on standardized test scores, more than 11,000 teachers and administrators from every state and more than 35 countries met to trade ideas about how best to prepare the nation's antiquated education system--and its students--for life and work in the 21st century.

"We are at a tipping point in the technological revolution," cultural anthropologist and author Jennifer James told educators during a rousing keynote address April 3 in which she encouraged teachers to embrace technology as a tool for engaging students and improving the overall quality of education in the nation's schools.

"Technology is changing everything," said James, who believes a "cultural shift" is under way in the nation's classrooms.

Whereas it used to be enough simply to herd learners through the system with a firm grasp of basic skills, James says, that approach falls short in today's information era, where advanced skills--such as critical thinking and deductive reasoning, to name two--are at a premium.

"This human shift brought about by technological change is creating many new openings," James explained. To take advantage of new opportunities, however, teachers first must equip students with the necessary skill sets.

But it won't be enough simply to outfit the nation's classrooms with the latest gadgets. For technology to have its intended impact, teachers must do their part to drive new methods of instruction.

"In the 21st century, learning must dictate how technology is used," ASCD Executive Director Gene Carter told a group of educational technology advocates during a special session on the closing day of the conference. Although there are a few shining examples of effective technology integration in schools, Carter said, "the average teacher is still using [technology] at very low level."

Rather than using technology as a vehicle to highlight the very methods schools have relied on in the past, James encouraged educators to focus on projects and assignments that instill such higher-order thinking skills as problem solving and critical analysis.

"Many of us have in our gut this sort of 1965 view of what education should be," James said. "If you walk through the halls of your schools and see nothing but mythology, then you're suffering from cognitive dissonance."

And schools aren't the only places where the realities of the 21st century seem to be passing us by, she said: Many of the nation's top education leaders, including the framers of the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), also are missing the point.