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"Every educator wants to teach in a connected classroom, and every student wants to learn in one. But what is the "connected classroom," and what are some of its most important features? Ideally, the connected classroom expands on the ever-popular concept of 21st century skills and puts many "must-have" ideas into practice. Connected classrooms have many moving parts, and each must work in sync to give students the best and most effective learning experiences possible. (Next page: Six characteristics of a connected classroom)"

"During its education event in January, Apple unveiled its plans to revolutionize the K-12 classroom with the iPad, electronic textbooks, a revamped version of iTunes U that supports content for K-12 schools as well as higher education, and tools for educators to create their own digital content using iBooks Author and iTunes U. In the intervening months, schools and districts around the country have made significant investments in iPads, including the San Diego Unified School District, which invested $15 million in 26,000 iPads for its students. Those sales created a record quarter for Apple in the K-12 education market. With the back to school season upon us, it's clear that the massive iPad deployments will give Apple the opportunity to disrupt the classroom in the ways it has whole industries and, in many ways, that's a good thing."

One of the perplexing things that teachers and educators encounter when trying to understand educational technology and leverage it  to their classrooms is the abundance  of those baffling  techy terms. Blended Learning is different from Differentiated Learning, Educational Technology might not be necessarily Instructional Technology, a Virtual Classroom is different from an Electronic Classroom or Flipped Classroom; There is also asynchronous, synchronous, and personalized learning, these and many more are but some examples of the growing terminology in this field.

"Social media offers some great opportunities for learning in the classroom, bringing together the ability to collaborate, access worldwide resources, and find new and interesting ways to communicate in one easily accessible place. Teachers around the world have found innovative ways to use Twitter as a teaching tool (including TeachThought's favorite), and we've shared many of these great ideas here with you. Read on, and we'll explore 60 inspiring ways that teachers and students can put Twitter to work in the classroom."

"Social media offers some great opportunities for learning in the classroom, bringing together the ability to collaborate, access worldwide resources, and find new and interesting ways to communicate in one easily accessible place. Teachers around the world have found innovative ways to use Twitter as a teaching tool, and we've shared many of these great ideas here with you. Read on, and we'll explore 60 inspiring ways that teachers and students can put Twitter to work in the classroom."

"With budgets tight, many schools are hoping to bring technology into the classroom without having to shell out for a device for each student. A solution for many has been to make classes BYOD (short for "bring your own device"), which allows students to bring laptops, tablets, and smartphones from home and to use them in the classroom and share them with other students. It's a promising idea, especially for schools that don't have big tech budgets, but it has met with some criticism from those who don't think that it's a viable long-term or truly budget-conscious decision. Whether that's the case is yet to be seen, but these stories of schools that have tried out BYOD programs seem to be largely positive, allowing educators and students to embrace technology in learning regardless of the limited resources they may have at hand."

"While many social bookmarking sites offer some collaboration opportunities, I have found that Diigo (Digest of Internet Information, Groups and Other stuff) combines a user-friendly social platform with bookmarking features, making it an effective research, integration, and collaboration tool for use in the classroom. In this article, I compare the benefits of traditional and social bookmarking websites. Then, using Diigo as a focus, I explore the possible uses and benefits of social bookmarking for research and collaboration in the classroom."

"Mystery Skype is an educational game, invented by teachers, played by two classrooms on Skype. The aim of the game is to guess the location of the other classroom by asking each other questions. It's suitable for all age groups and can be used to teach subjects like geography, history, languages, mathematics and science."

Many is the blog post which highlights the ways in which Twitter is the best staffroom in the world but I've not seen too many that highlight the ways in which we can use Twitter in the classroom. Many teachers love to use Twitter as a resource to share, explore, discuss and 'magpie' ideas from other teachers and as a vehicle to help develop their own ideas and their own practice too. It's great for that… no, it's absolutely brilliant for that! So how can we capitalise on the 140 character legendary social media king to help learning in the classroom? Here are some do's and don'ts to help get you going.

"I recently stumbled across this handy infographic from Oakdome that shows a step by step guide to using your iPad for a paperless workflow/classroom. Since its no secret that paper is no longer the staple of the classroom, and since we've been looking recently at a few ways to make your classroom greener this year, we thought this step-by-step guide would be particularly useful! It tells you what you need and how to distribute, submit, grade, and return assignments using Google Drive. So whether you're just starting on a paperless journey or have been doing things a different way, this should help you on your way!"

"Technology has been used in the classroom for decades now. But with the advent of cloud computing and the proliferation of smaller, more portable computers and Internet-capable devices, it's now possible to bring the classroom into the technology instead. Mobile learning, focuses on learning through mobile devices, allowing learners to move about in a classroom or remotely learn from the location of their choice. The movement has gained a lot of steam in recent years, and despite some criticisms, isn't likely to fade fast - especially as new technologies that make mobile learning more practical continue to emerge and the popularity of remote learning opportunities like online colleges continue to grow."

Begun in 2007, Creative Educator focuses on effective ideas and strategies to foster creativity and engage students in the curriculum. Articles are designed to provide you with an informed and diverse view of today's educational technology field, including fresh ideas about project-based learning, classroom management, and creativity. The classroom stories illustrate how educators are already utilizing creativity tools in their classrooms and the lesson plans provide specific ideas, resources, and directions that make implementing creative work with technology even easier.

"One of the great things about Minecraft is that there's not just one version. It exists as a stand-alone game, but creative players also create modifications, or "mods," that add all sorts of upgrades, features, and options for every taste. One of the most popular mods for classrooms is MinecraftEdu. Since it's targeted at classrooms, teachers may be tempted to ignore Minecraft and head straight for MinecraftEdu -- but not so fast! Both Minecraft and MinecraftEdu can serve as great learning tools. So which version is right for you and your classroom? Consult this list of pros, cons, and suggestions to make your decision."

"In classrooms all around the globe, educators are introducing new and exciting technological tools to engage their students in learning. Many educators are successful when integrating these technologies, but unfortunately many are not for a variety of reasons. In my opinion, and from my experience in classrooms around the world, these are the biggest mistakes that educators make when integrating technology into the classroom:"

"How to set up blogging in the classroom will depend on your platform, and is pretty easy to figure out with all of the "how-to" videos and help center collections. What teachers most often ask me is why they would set up a blog for their class. What value is there in a class blog? Here are some great ideas and applications for class and/or individual student blogs that you can explore in your classroom."

"Blogging in the classroom was a watershed discovery for me.  I had such an acute need for a better way to manage my student's writing, but I was wary of blogging.  There are challenges to helping students learn in an online community.  Until I met Matt Hardy from KidBlog, I viewed these risks as too big to manage on my own.  I believe that as a teacher I have to both innovate and protect my own professional reputation.  When I heard Matt talk about how he created KidBlog to support exactly the kind of connected learning I want to happen in my classroom, I realized how accessible this learning is now.  Using school specific tools like Kidblog, or  Edublogs, can give you more control and management potential than using conventional tools like Blogger, or WordPress"

In 2012 Musgrave Hill SS is entering a new phase in learning as we begin an Apple trial to investigate the effectiveness of iPads for all students, in particular special needs students in mainstream classrooms. We have three target classrooms working with iPads 1:2 with students and two sets of six iPads available for all classes to borrow for use inteaching and learning. The classes in the 1:2 project have several special needs students and a teams of teachers and aides who will support the students, their learning and the project. We will document the iPad Project and provide data that we hope will substantiate our belief that iPads and many other digital technologies are essential to support teaching and learning at our school in the 21st Century.

An interesting infographic related to the Flipped Classroom. Mainly High School data but useful nonetheless.

"From connecting via Twitter as an educator to Twitter in the classroom and connecting your class globally." This Slideshare from Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano looks at Twitter from a classroom prespective.