the interactive textbooks seen so far perpetuate the linearity and conformity of traditional learning, where everything is gearedfrom kindergarten to high-schoolto preparing for college entrance; where mistakes are expunged at the cost of creativity.This is what Sir Ken Robinson, a leading authority on education reform, calls the industrial model of education. As professor of education at Warwick University, Dr Robinson led a national commission on creativity, education and the economy for the British government, and has spent the past decade trying to prevent education authorities from stifling their students inner passions. In his view, creativity is as important in education as literacyand should be given equal emphasis. That would seem a reasonable start. So, if software is to be used as a teaching aid (called blended learning in pedagogical circles), then it should seek to balance the need for correct answers with the freedom to take risks and break rules. If youre not prepared to be wrong, Dr Robinson preaches, youll never come up with anything original. No question that industry is crying out for innovative young minds capable of taking intellectual chances. A common complaint is that science education, in American schools especially, is doled out in easily digested bites that condition students to get correct answers, but without any profound understanding of why. In a report published last year, the National Research Council in Washington, DC, identified a number of cross-cutting concepts (such as cause and effect and stability and change) that provide the weft and the warp of science. Mastering these thoroughly, the report argued, would provide a firm foundation for young thinkers to take the kind of chances needed to be truly innovative. One promising approach along these lines has been adopted by the CK-12 Foundation, a non-profit organisation that seeks to reduce the cost of teaching materials by using open-source methods. Its FlexBook platform, predominantly for science and mathematics, allows high-school teachers to mix and modify content freely to meet individual needs, while still adhering to curriculum standards.This year, the CK-12 Foundation is to start offering tools that will allow high-school students to teach themselves. To help them, the foundation has devised a concept map that contains the 5,000 or so concepts in science and mathematics that students need to master if they are to qualify for admission to Massachusetts Institute of Technology or Stanford University.Meanwhile, the Khan Academy, with backing from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and others, continues to develop its library of 2,700 free video lessons stored on YouTube that cover everything from arithmetic to finance, history and physics, along with several hundred practice exercises. The videos provide one-on-one tutoring via an online electronic blackboard that can be paused so students can learn at their own pace. In your correspondents opinion, the Khan Academy has the makings of what a free, world-class, virtual school should be. Try it.In the end, the two technologies that could save science education from the kind of reforms the pedagogues have in mind are video games and social networking, especially mobile versions. These are technologies that the young