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"Regardless of whether you think every infant needs an iPad, I think we can all agree that technology has changed education for the better. Today's learners now enjoy easier, more efficient access to information; opportunities for extended and mobile learning; the ability to give and receive immediate feedback; and greater motivation to learn and engage. We now have programs and platforms that can transform learners into globally active citizens, opening up countless avenues for communication and impact. Thousands of educational apps have been designed to enhance interest and participation. Course management systems and learning analytics have streamlined the education process and allowed for quality online delivery. But if we had to pick the top ten, most influential ways technology has transformed education, what would the list look like? The following things have been identified by educational researchers and teachers alike as the most powerful uses of technology for learning. Take a look. 1. Critical Thinking In Meaningful Learning With Technology, David H. Jonassen and his co-authors argue that students do not learn from teachers or from technologies. Rather, students learn from thinking-thinking about what they are doing or what they did, thinking about what they believe, thinking about what others have done and believe, thinking about the thinking processes they use-just thinking and reasoning. Thinking mediates learning. Learning results from thinking. So what kinds of thinking are fostered when learning with technologies? Analogical If you distill cognitive psychology into a single principle, it would be to use analogies to convey and understand new ideas. That is, understanding a new idea is best accomplished by comparing and contrasting it to an idea that is already understood. In an analogy, the properties or attributes of one idea (the analogue) are mapped or transferred to another (the source or target). Single analogies are also known as sy

"In this modern technology-driven world, more and more students need to learn coding skills. Coding is the method that is used to create websites, software for computers, and the apps that are so popular on everyone's tablets and smartphones. Kids are naturally adept at learning this technology because it's been around since they were born. They don't remember a time where this new age of computer savvy didn't exist. There are ways to make learning how to code more interesting and effective with certain projects that expressly promote it. Here are five project places that students can use to creatively develop those all important coding skills. Providing ways for creatively developing coding skills is a great way to get students started in the world of coding. The following tools will even help them in continuing studies and skills practice."

"Education in Social Studies is needed to achieve levels of civilization that the nation requires of its citizens. Teaching and learning in Social Studies is effective only when it is substantial, authentic, integrated and value-based. Its disciplines are diverse with an expanse of historical, geographical, political, civic and a lot more content. So, learners and educators of Social Studies should possess tools and resources to learn about it and acquire skills in it. Here are some worthy and free tools and resources for Teaching and learning Social Studies, available online:"

"Nobody said that raising an adolescent was easy, and schooling one is even more of a challenge! Parents are taking on a lot of school responsibility, and let's face it -- things are different than they used to be. How are parents supposed to know how to handle the homework load without some guidance? Take studying, for example. If you are a parent of a struggling or resistant learner, you've probably heard more than one person suggest, "She just needs to study more." Most kids think this means filling in a study guide or rereading a chapter. But many don't learn by writing or reading. Their strengths lie in the visual, kinesthetic, musical, or social realm. How, then, are we to help our children develop their studying skills? The task does not have to be daunting. In fact, it can actually be simple and effective!"

"Please, No More Professional Development! By Peter DeWitt on April 17, 2015 8:10 AM Today's guest blog is written by Kristine Fox (Ed.D), Senior Field Specialist/Research Associate at Quaglia Institute for Student Aspirations (QISA). She is a former teacher and administrator who has passion for teacher learning and student voice. Kris works directly with teachers and leaders across the country to help all learners reach their fullest potential. Peter DeWitt recently outlined why "faculty meetings are a waste of time." Furthering on his idea, most professional development opportunities don't offer optimal learning experiences and the rare teacher is sitting in her classroom thinking "I can't wait until my district's next PD day." When I inform a fellow educator that I am a PD provider, I can read her thoughts - boring, painful, waste of time, useless, irrelevant - one would think my job is equal to going to the dentist (sorry to my dentist friends). According to the Quaglia Institute and Teacher Voice and Aspirations International Center's National Teacher Voice Report only 54% percent of teachers agree "Meaningful staff development exists in my school." I can't imagine any other profession being satisfied with that number when it comes to employee learning and growth. What sense does it make for the science teacher to spend a day learning about upcoming English assessments? Or, for the veteran teacher to learn for the hundredth time how to use conceptual conflict as a hook. Why does education insist everyone attend the same type of training regardless of specialization, experience, or need? As a nod to the upcoming political campaigns and the inevitable introduction of plans with lots of points, here is my 5 Point Plan for revamping professional development. 5 Point Plan Point I - Change the Term: Semantics Matter We cannot reclaim the term Professional Development for teachers. It has a long, baggage-laden history of conformity that does not

"Every parent intuitively knows it's a good thing to teach their child how to share and play well with others and how to deal with emotions like anger and sadness, but do most of us have any sense of just how important these so-called social and emotional skills can be to our child's long-term success? Why doing it 'like a girl' is great 01:46 How to teach girls to be confident #LikeAGirl The new study, a comprehensive 20-year examination of 800 children from kindergarten through their mid-20s published Thursday in the American Journal of Public Health, found a link between a child's social skills in kindergarten and how well they were doing in early adulthood."

"A recent study has found that kindergartners who use iPads in school are likely to score higher on literacy tests than those who do not. The study, which was carried out in Auburn, Maine early last year, looked at 266 kindergartners who had been given free iPads to use in class as part of an experiment. Out of the 266 students, 129 were given lessons using iPads, while the remaining 137 were taught through traditional methods. The results, which were published on Apple's unofficial tech blog, TUAW, showed that in addition to better scores in every literacy test, children who were taught through the use of an iPad also showed an increased interest in learning and were more enthusiastic about going to school."

"If we collectively want to keep our jobs we must change the way we look at hard and soft skills. We have to find a way to redefine what they are, what is intensely human and what will remain our competitive advantage over the year in the advent of AI and job-threatening-robots.  With research showing that less and less importance is placed on conventional intelligence and with studies indicating that it can actually be counterproductive at work to employ too much of one's IQ while at the same time having organizations move away from formal education, what role does knowledge still play in this brave new world of soft skills and humanity? Professionals who attach a lot of their self-esteem to their intelligence will get bored easily, will get frustrated repeatedly and will feel less inclined to be truly engaged with their colleagues. What's the answer to that? Should they all aim lower to fit in? Is playing dumb a success condition? We have enough trouble getting passion and courage into ourselves and our people - if we now decide knowledge is superfluous what are we left with?"

"Students with learning disabilities often have trouble with study skills like getting and staying organized-a crucial executive function skill-and remembering what needs to happen and when. My daughter (who has dyslexia) and I have researched and/or tested the following apps, and she's found them especially helpful. We know that every person has slightly different needs, but it's worth taking the time to find out which apps work for your child. "

"Before students are able to directly tackle the challenges outlined in the 17 Global Goals, they need to build content and skill-related knowledge. Whether you are working to create a global focus in your curriculum or designing a specific PBL or IBL activity for your students, Curriculum Pathways provides both academic content and the skill-based resources you need. Think of the 17 Global Goals as scaffolding to help students find greater relevance and meaningful applications for their learning. Challenge students to examine scientific concepts, patterns of human injustice, or data analysis skills in a global context. Global goals provide the opportunity to extend the challenges and successes experienced in a local project to similar components found in global issues. Check out the free Curriculum Pathways resources that provide academic connections to Global Goals for science, math, English, Spanish, and social studies."

"We are living in an age of Gen Z-ers who, as digital natives, are in tune with technological advances in communication such as social media, gaming, and conducting research almost exclusively using the internet. Their avenues for engagement are changing and teachers who are increasing STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) instruction in their classrooms are exploring ways to incorporate more hands-on, immersive learning experiences that combine innovative technology with real-world connections. The motivation for doing so? To see their students' active participation in experiments and projects, as well as strengthening the four Cs to 21st-century skills: Critical Thinking, Collaboration, Communication, and Creativity.  Teachers have a variety of ways to help them expand what they already do with STEM. More teachers are including the study of robotics in their STEM curriculum because it introduces students to coding and programming. As students work through these key tech skills for building their robots and directing their movements, they're also growing their "4 Cs" skills. Let's look at how. "

"A small study, carried out by Michelle Riconscente, an assistant professor of education at the University of Southern California, offers some promising results, even with the necessary caveat that it was funded by the Motion Math app with a grant from the Noyce Foundation."

"Many students are not good at evaluating the credibility of what they see and read online according to a now-famous Stanford study that was released just after the 2016 election. And while it's true that 82 percent of middle schoolers couldn't tell the difference between a native advertisement and a news article, neither could 59 percent of adults in a study conducted by the advertising industry. Sam Wineburg, the Stanford professor who led the middle school study, is worried that everyone is "profoundly confused" right now and that schools aren't doing enough to teach students the skills they need to be effective citizens and digital consumers."

"In recent years, there has been a push to introduce coding and computational thinking in early childhood education, and robotics is an excellent tool to achieve this. However, the integration of these fundamental skills into formal and official curriculums is still a challenge and educators needs pedagogical perspectives to properly integrate robotics, coding and computational thinking concepts into their classrooms. Thus, this study evaluates a "coding as a playground" experience in keeping with the Positive Technological Development (PTD) framework with the KIBO robotics kit, specially designed for young children. The research was conducted with preschool children aged 3-5 years old (N = 172) from three Spanish early childhood centers with different socio-economic characteristics and teachers of 16 classes. Results confirm that it is possible to start teaching this new literacy very early (at 3 years old). Furthermore, the results show that the strategies used promoted communication, collaboration and creativity in the classroom settings. The teachers also exhibited autonomy and confidence to integrate coding and computational thinking into their formal curricular activities, connecting concepts with art, music and social studies. Through the evidence found in this study, this research contributes with examples of effective strategies to introduce robotics, coding and computational thinking into early childhood classrooms."

"The adoption of generative artificial intelligence (genAI) has shuffled the list of top skills businesses want from professionals in 2024, according to a new job site study and education industry data. Far from replacing workers, genAI appears poised to transform the way technologists and others work, allowing them to focus more on creative tasks such as product development, and less on mundane tasks that can be automated."

"Summer has begun! This is a great opportunity to reflect on the past year and to learn some new skills for next school year. We will be starting a weekly book study of Dave Burgess', Teach Like a Pirate on 6/17 at 8pm CST. Burgess teaches cutting-edge strategies for skyrocketing creativity so that teachers will be able to design lessons to draw students into their content like a magnet. Readers will leave with the ability to create a classroom experience that will have students knocking down the doors to get in. The book will have your mind racing with ideas that you can bring into your classroom immediately."

"Many students struggle with the skills of organising homework and studying for exams. There are a number of apps that have been designed specifically for these situation. Some are flashcard apps that work really well for dates and facts, others are apps that attempt to create some organisation around assignments and upcoming examinations. I must admit I tend to lean towards those apps that use a bit of fun to help students learn. So if you have a students needing that bit of extra help what apps could you suggest."

"Parents who have patiently sat through countless music recitals and questioned their sanity at encouraging all those trumpet or violin lessons need do so no longer. Even ear-splitting dissonance has an upside. Music training not only helps children develop fine motor skills, but aids emotional and behavioral maturation as well, according to a new study, one of the largest to investigate the effects of playing an instrument on brain development."

"Mention robots to many English teachers and they'll immediately point down the hall to the science classroom or to the makerspace, if they have one. At many schools, if there's a robot at all, it's located in a science or math classroom or is being built by an after-school robotics club. It's not usually a fixture in English classrooms. But as teachers continue to work at finding new entry points to old material for their students, robots are proving to be a great interdisciplinary tool that builds collaboration and literacy skills. "For someone like me who teaches literature by lots of dead white guys, teaching programming adds relevance to my class," said Jessica Herring, a high school English teacher at Benton High School in Arkansas. Herring first experimented using Sphero, essentially a programmable ball, when her American literature class was studying the writing of early settlers. Herring pushed the desks back and drew a maze on the floor with tape representing the journey from Europe to the New World. Her students used class iPads and an introductory manually guided app to steer their Spheros through the maze. Herring, like many English teachers, was skeptical about how the Sphero robot could be a useful teaching tool in her classroom. She thought that type of technology would distract students from the core skills of reading, writing and analyzing literature. But she decided to try it after hearing about the success of another English teacher across the country."