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"For the longest time teachers and lecturers have held the monopoly on the production of academic content. They create lesson plans, produce resources, devise marking schemes and search around for activities and games they can repurpose to use in teaching sessions. Although the production of content has been the preserve of the teacher and the academic since the formalisation of education, increasingly, we also see learners creating their own content. They have the tools, they own the technology, and they have the confidence to use them, not only informally, but increasingly in formal learning contexts. Many are prolific and proficient in producing blogs, podcasts, videos and photos for sharing on the web. They can do it all using the simple smartphone in their pocket. This user generated content trend is apparent not only in universities and colleges but also in the compulsory education sectors."

"If you're embarking on a video project, perhaps an explainer video, podcast, school project or video presentation, using the right production music can be the key to successfully drawing your viewers in; but finding the perfect song to use beneath a voice over actor's recording can seem a daunting task. Of course you could commission a track to be composed especially for you, but that can run into tens of thousands of dollars. Luckily, there are plenty of places available for you to find free music for your video project, but where can you get it from and how do you know if you have the legal right to use it for your project?"

Audiotool is a powerful online music production studio right in your browser. We give you the freedom to use new-tech and vintage inspired music devices that you are already familiar with. All crafted with lots of love for the small details.

"Discuss web-site or product interfaces with your team. Add visual materials and screenshots, mark-up, leave comments in mini-chat. Create simple sketches or complex infographics using shapes, texts and mark-up tools. Visualize any data and share it with others. Upload pictures and drawings of interior and exterior, discuss your design projects with your colleagues and clients using comments and chat. Plan and discuss your projects in RealtimeBoard - add your Google Docs and PDF-presentations, create mindmaps and collaborate in real time. Use business model template to structure your business activity. Add files, texts, pictures, comments and work together.

"Call it the "learning paradox": the more you struggle and even fail while you're trying to master new information, the better you're likely to recall and apply that information later. The learning paradox is at the heart of "productive failure," a phenomenon identified by Manu Kapur, a researcher at the Learning Sciences Lab at the National Institute of Education of Singapore. Kapur points out that while the model adopted by many teachers and employers when introducing others to new knowledge - providing lots of structure and guidance early on, until the students or workers show that they can do it on their own - makes intuitive sense, it may not be the best way to promote learning. Rather, it's better to let the neophytes wrestle with the material on their own for a while, refraining from giving them any assistance at the start."

I've spent the past few months with GCSE and A-level classes doing absolutely no writing at all beyond sample tests and student blogs. Students realise how high the bar of public domain writing is. This can be initially intimidating, but that removes all apathy or sense of the humdrum. Asking all students to write blogs as learning unfolds and interlinks empowers the teacher to be more supportive because they're less tied to the bureaucracy; it raises challenge levels; it enables IT-skilling; it lets students see their own progress and differentiates well; it means more productive and accelerating learning-talk over rote-writing.

"The Google Docs collection provides a streamlined, collaborative solution to writing papers, organizing presentations and putting together spreadsheets and reports. But besides the basic features, there are lots of little tricks and hacks you can use to make your Google Docs experience even more productive. Here are 100 great tips for using the documents, presentations and spreadsheets in Google Docs."

"Today while I was editing a shared document one of my colleagues sent me over Google Drive , it dawned on me to compile a list of some interesting extensions I am using on my Google Drive. Using these apps will make your Google Drive experience way better than you have ever imagined. They will also increase your productivity and overall workflow. Needlesss to say that these extensions are only for Chrome browser."

"Google bought Nest for $3.2bn (£1.8bn) earlier this year despite the fact it only had two relatively niche products on sale. The search firm's chairman Eric Schmidt described the acquisition at the time as "an important bet" on intelligent devices for the home that were "infinitely more useable" than existing kit. Others are also making early steps into what is being called the "internet of things":"

"The laptop market is about to be flooded with Chromebooks. Intel today announced that its processors will be used in 20 new products built with Google's web-based operating system later this year; Lenovo too announced its own forays into the category; and other manufacturers have started to support the devices as sales of traditional Windows-based PCs continue to fall. Chromebooks are getting a little less weird, and a little more like the netbooks they replaced."

After Google+ entered the social networking scene not so long ago, the number of online distractions hasn't really decreased. At the same time, innovations and smarter solutions to handle your actions online have fortunately continued to thrive too. Instead of the usual to-do lists, news readers, or sharing tools, they tackle things in new and more helpful ways. What's most important for me, is that they slot right into my workflow, and allow me to become more efficient without changing my behavior. A few apps recently managed to do so brilliantly. Here are my favorite new tools to help you stay focused and use the Web more innovatively.

"A hundred and fifty years ago, adults were incensed about child labor. Low-wage kids were taking jobs away from hard-working adults..... Large-scale education was never about teaching kids or creating scholars. It was invented to churn out adults who worked well within the system. Of course, it worked. Several generations of productive, fully employed workers followed. But now?"

"At Forest Lake Elementary School, in Columbia, South Carolina, the student population grows more diverse by the day. Income levels, ethnicities, family structures, first languages, interests, and abilities now vary so much, that a traditional teaching approach, with a uniform lesson targeted to the average-level student, just doesn't cut it. (Sound familiar to you educators out there?) To challenge and support each child at his or her own level, the Forest Lake teachers and staff are deploying a powerful array of widely available digital-technology tools. Each classroom is equipped with an interactive whiteboard and a Tech Zone of eight Internet-enabled computers. Plus, teachers have access to gadgets including digital cameras, Flip cameras, remote-response clickers, and PDAs. More important than the gadgets themselves, of course, is how the teachers use them to create personalized lessons and a productive environment where each child is engaged. Here are Forest Lake teachers' top tips on how to do it."

The ThingLink Challenge is a sponsored list of suggestions for using Thinglink. This is the showcase of final products. Participants can get inspired by the growing channel of interactive images submitted by other participants by revisiting the blog.