Digital

Enrollment in state-run online schools is on the rise, though broad gaps remain in the availability of digital resources and tools across the country's large, mid-sized, and small school systems, a new report concludes.

AUSTIN, Texas — Technology is everywhere at KIPP Austin Obras, a charter elementary school in Texas. One day at the beginning of the school year, first-graders grappled with math concepts as they tried to coax JiJi the penguin across the screen of their netbooks. Kindergarteners in a Spanish-language technology class learned to log on to their computers while second-graders did elementary coding on a Flappy Bird game, with one boy turning the birds into tiny Santa Clauses.

Scott Ellis took his Greeley audience back in time to when he was in first grade at Tavelli Elementary School in Fort Collins.