About 200 educators, students, researchers and others have converged in Half Moon Bay to explore and develop innovative ideas to improve education.

The Big Ideas Fest tackles such challenging questions as: How can we ensure that new technologies flourish, and how can we make education relevant to all today's students at all levels of learning?

The event started Sunday and runs until Wednesday at the Ritz-Carlton hotel. It's produced by the Half Moon Bay-based nonprofit Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education and sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and other organizations.

"Our education system is at a crossroads," said Lisa Petrides, the institute's president. "We need big change, but