Most of us can think of projects and problem-solving in terms of stages, but it is less comfortable applying this same mental framework to the development of a good new idea.

Some people build houses in stages, one wing at a time, over several generations. Could we do the same with ideas?

Some of us have been exploring how we might best launch engaged learning with new technologies, but our ideas on how best to achieve this goal keep shifting as the tools and the contexts evolve.

In March of 1998, I wrote "The Wired Classroom: Creating Technology Enhanced Student-Centered Learning Environments" - http://fno.org/mar98/flotilla.html.

By January of 2000, that same idea had evolved to "The Unwired Classroom: Wireless Computers Come of Age" - http://fno.org/jan01/wireless.

When ideas must make their way into the world and be tested by reality, they are apt to pass through stages and generations of development.

If ideas are not adjusted from time to time, they creak with age and irrelevance like the outmoded science concepts and information sadly retained in many old textbooks and library books still in schools.