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"The fact that millions of Americans are building airplanes in their garage, meeting at makerspaces to work with strangers on customized robots, and collaboratively solving society's problems at hackathons, is a beautiful thing. To its advocates and participants, the Maker Movement resonates with all of those characteristics that we believe makes America great: independence and ingenuity, creativity and resourcefulness. But as impressive as today's tools are, they're not accessible to many Americans simply because of their costs and high technological barrier to entry. Though the price of 3-D printers has come down considerably and continues to drop, the tool still costs several hundred to thousands of dollars to buy. And mastering even the simplest computer-aided modeling tools requires a bit of dedicated study and technical savvy. This begs the question: How can we continue to bring this nascent revolution to everyone who is interested?"

"Haiku Deck is a fantastic tool for designing slideshow presentations. The best aspect of Haiku Deck is the built-in Creative Commons image search tool. That tool makes it easy to find high resolution images to match the message of each slide in your presentation. Over the last year I've had a handful of occasions on which used Haiku Deck to find images and design slides before dropping them into Keynote. On the same track, Haiku Deck recently published directions for exporting Haiku Deck to PowerPoint. That option is available in both the iPad and web app versions of Haiku Deck. "

"Web 2.0 technology - the free digital tools that empower all users to create and share - has changed the way the world operates. In the hands of educators, it can become a powerful catalyst for changing the way students learn."

"Interested in expanding your Personal Learning Network over social media? Here are some tools to make you a social media pro."

"The Google Apps for Education suite includes a number of robust tools that can streamline administrative tasks. In addition to making your job as an administrator easier, using them allows you to model effective technology adoption with your staff. One of my favorite tools to tackle this type of tasks is Google Forms, one of tools within Google Drive. Here are five ways that Administrators can use Google Forms in their schools."

"Looking for some good web tools to use to create educational video collages? The collection below has you covered. It features a number of popular tools and mobile apps to utilize with students to create, edit and share video collages. The common thing among all of these video editors is that they are easy and simple to use with no advanced video editing knowledge required. Some of these tools work on Chromebooks as well."

"Both STEM and EdTech are hot topics these days, and educators can now leverage a host of wonderful tools that make teaching easier and learning more interactive. Here we describe some of the hottest new technology in STEM education, and provide a list of free online resources available to you, including STEM websites, simulations, communications tools, and tips for teachers. These tools are transforming the way teachers approach STEM. They help you tie the theoretical concepts of your subjects into real-world applications. By showing students that the knowledge you're imparting is relevant and useful, you can more successfully engage them in your lessons, while developing their creativity and problem-solving skills. Ultimately, you could help inspire a new generation of scientists, mathematicians, and innovators!"

"Five or so years ago when it launched (way back when, in technology terms), Pinterest entered a social media market dominated by text. Quite simply, it brought an unprecedented visual aspect to social media which users enjoyed, though it was a fairly basic platform. Fast forward to today and you'll find a plethora of new features that can make it particularly useful in your classroom. Read More: How to Use Instagram In Your Classroom So how can making boards and pinning photos be a useful tool for teachers? Pinterest offers a number of different options for teachers both for professional development and for student work. Tons of teachers (and other folks, too) are using this tool  - there are countless boards devoted to lesson plans, classroom ideas, and more. There are purportedly around 100 million active users as of December 2015 - and as with many web-based tools, the more people there are contributing to a platform, the better stuff there will be for you to use (even if you have to sort through some garbage to find it!)   To get your wheels churning, we've collected a few of our favorite ideas below."

"Last week, I had the honour of keynoting a talk for The Manitoba Association of Computing Educators called Technology as the Ultimate Equalizer in which I shared accessibility tools students with learning disabilities could use to help their achievement match their potential. This included Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools such as Rewordify and Quillbot which students could use to simplify dense text  if they have verbal comprehension issues and Dictation.io which can be used by students with slow processing speed to help them get their ideas on paper as well as many others. But never until now, has there been such uproar about the impact of AI in the classroom as with the introduction of an open source AI tool, Chat GPT which has everyone talking about The Death of the Essay and other woes in education."

Space, whether physical or virtual, can have a significant impact on learning. Learning Spaces focuses on how learner expectations influence such spaces, the principles and activities that facilitate learning, and the role of technology from the perspective of those who create learning environments: faculty, learning technologists, librarians, and administrators. Information technology has brought unique capabilities to learning spaces, whether stimulating greater interaction through the use of collaborative tools, videoconferencing with international experts, or opening virtual worlds for exploration. This e-book represents an ongoing exploration as we bring together space, technology, and pedagogy to ensure learner success.

"The notion of digital literacy, or "Information, Communications, and Technology Literacy" (ICT Literacy), usually takes into account the vocational skills required to operate digital machines or the intellectual skills required to program or 'code' them. The concept does not account for the social and intellectual advantages that are available to affluent students with access to more, and better integrated, educational technologies. In other words, it is not only about skills, but also about cognition, etiquette, motivation, socialization and culture - the context within which one uses the tools."

"By developing a positive learning community within a classroom, a teacher can take the initial steps necessary to begin integrating technology tools and resources. With consistent perseverance and practice, soon these teachers can find new ways to transform learning experiences while dispelling the myth of distraction while learning with technology."

"Digital differentiation is a new concept I learned from our colleague Susan Oxnevad. She did a really wonderful job crafting and designing the tools for digital differentiation which I am sharing with you below in the form of interactive images created using Thinglink."

"Why It's Time To Focus On Skills (Not Just Cool Tools)"

"One of the things I like the most about iPad is its ability to support all the major e-reader platforms. Its interactivity and audio capabilities have even added a new dimension to read alouds and bedtime stories, making it an ideal device for digital storytelling. And since Educational Technology and Mobile Learning has already featured a List of The Best Digital Storytelling Tools ( web and desktop version ) then we deem it equally important to provide another list of such tools but this time for the iPad."

"The Maker Movement is one of creativity and invention. Of Do-It-Yourself ingenuity. Of making things with your own hands. Building something from scratch can shift a lesson from a lecture into an experience. Students can play, diverge, tinker, make mistakes, help each other, and express themselves with the appropriate guidance of a teacher/facilitator. The end result can be anywhere from an honest try to a creative wonder. Whatever the case, consider adding the following tools to your experiential learning toolkit. Curated by elementary school technology coach Elizabeth Espinoza, this comprehensive collection contains web, desktop, and mobile apps that can help your students become makers and inventors."

"As a teacher, delving into the world of education technology can be daunting. There is SO MUCH out there. How is a busy teacher to know where to begin? Fortunately, Glenda Stewart-Smith of Surrey School District #36 in Canada has put together this collection of essential teaching tools. Each has been shown to be effective in the classroom. There is no need to dive in head-first. If you are drowning in a sea of edtech, wade in this proven pool first."

"Twitter is a brilliant tool to distribute information, follow ideas, and stay up to date with what's trending in whatever niche you're interested in following. In education, that could be curriculum, 21st century learning, education technology, assessment, or future learning trends like mobile learning, blended learning, and dozens of others. Twitter chats and #hashtags are exceptional ways to enable the above, allowing real-time and asynchronous discussions and other connections that can help you improve your craft as an educator."

"For teachers who are genuinely interested in helping their visually impaired students excel, here are some tools that you may want to consider making use of (if you aren't already doing so)."

"he two categories to be discussed in this post include Games and Back Channels. Both allow for a wonderful formative experience. There are a number of resources that can be found on the internet in these two areas. The back channel in the classroom is powerful and your LMS (Learning Management System) may serve this quite well. You also may get some added privacy which is important. While I believe kids can create games as a awesome formative experience, I will save that for a later post. In this article I wish to focus on how educational games provide a wonderful learning experience perhaps going well beyond content. As in all online tools be sure to check your district AUP along with the terms and conditions of the website you are using. Enjoy the resources and please let me know what I should add for a future post!"