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"As part of our Back-to-School series, we are sharing chapters and excerpts from the Makerspace Playbook: School Edition. Today, an excerpt from Chapter 9, Startup: tips for funding your Makerspace. One idea not shared in the playbook that has come up time and again is having a Make Sale, where you sell some of the items made in the Makerspace. Hillel Posner's students make cutting boards and necklaces in their woodworking class. Casey Shea at Analy High School recoups some of the high cost of buying and maintaining the school's laser cutter with an annual yearbook-engraving fundraiser. What have you done in your school to raise money to Make? On to our excerpt: Your Makerspace may not need much of a budget to operate, if you have a space you can use for free, tools to borrow, and materials found or donated. For some Makerspaces, the ones with lots of parental involvement, many of the projects are self-funded. But if your Makerspace takes place at a school without as much family support, or if you simply do not have this all in place, you may need to research community or family foundation grants to fill in the gap. It's possible there could be city or other government agency grants available to get your Makerspace what it needs. Sometimes you can find the funding with a "planning grant." If you are partnering with a non-profit, get advice from the fundraising staff who may be able to suggest the right foundations to approach. Ask around. Online tools like Kickstarter and Indiegogo might help you conduct pointed fundraising campaigns towards a specific goal. There are many sites like this - search on "crowdfunding" for more suggestions. While it's not a Makerspace, we know that the Rhode Island Mini Maker Faire used this tactic to launch a Maker Faire. Maybe it could work for a Makerspace too."

"The maker movement and maker education, in my perspective, are such great initiatives - really in line with what student-centric education should be in this era of formal and informal learning. Maker education (often referred to as "Maker Ed") is a new school of educational thought [at least in terms of having an "official" educational label - JG] that focuses on delivering constructivist, project-based learning curriculum and instructional units to students. Maker education spaces can be as large as full high school workshops with high-tech tools, or as small and low-tech as one corner of an elementary classroom. A makerspace isn't just about the tools and equipment, but the sort of learning experience the space provides to students who are making projects. (9 Maker Projects for Beginner Maker Ed Teachers) Social media has helped me gain a more global perspective and become aware of some of the problems associated with the maker movement. The two I discuss in this post are: Maker movement initiatives are often driven by more affluent white males. The maker movement is too often being associated with the tech stuff - Arduinos, Littlebits, Makey-Makeys - stuff that less affluent schools and community programs can afford."

"If you've purchased any or all of iLife/iWork apps for iOS at some point in the past, now is the time to update your productivity suite and take advantage of the new features Apple introduced just yesterday at their event in San Francisco. It was quite a big day for the likes of iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand, Pages, Numbers, and Keynote. Not only did Apple unleash a host of new features, they've also baked in deep compatibility for these apps-utilizing iCloud, OS X 10.9 Mavericks, and iOS 7. Read on for some of the highlights you'll find in the updated apps."

"We recently received a few requests from music teachers asking for some suggestions on music accessories to use with their iPads. Here are some of our recommendations based on what some geeky music teachers are actually using in  their classrooms. If you are looking for some good educational apps to use in your music lessons, check out this page. Apple music store also features a wide range of options to choose from. Enjoy"

"The use of word clouds in the classroom is a powerful way to really get through to visual learners. The details about the following nine word cloud generators will give you a fair idea how, as an educator, you can get the best out of them. A quick note: Wordle is quite easily the most popular word cloud generator out there. It's free and easy to use. It does require Java though so Chrome users might have some trouble. In any case, this article focuses on non-Wordle options you should know about."

"On supply, normal rules don't apply. You may be left a set of plans, fully resourced, for the day. Or you may turn up with five minutes (10 minutes after you received the call to go) before the children arrive, to an empty desk, a missing laptop, and no password for the photocopier. You don't know that the children have some work to finish off in any spare five minutes. You need to make sure that the children are fully occupied and engaging with their task to help minimise fuss and poor behaviour. You may be warned assembly is a 9:30 sharp, only to arrive and discover that it has been cancelled for today. In short, you need help! From five minute time fillers, to whole session activities ideas on the hop, apps are an essential tool for supply teachers."

Problems for Grades 5-9 FlyBy Math™ consists of five Air Traffic Control (ATC) Problems that address the safe separation of two planes.

Manitoba educators who are "reaching out" to other schools using technology should consider applying for $1000 grant. Six grants in total are available with 2 at K-4; 2 at 5-8 and 2 at 9-12 grade levels. Submission deadlines are Jan 26 & Apr 13, 2011. This opportunity is a meaningful extension for LwICT empowered students to reach out and make a difference.

Build yur own graphical map on a 7 x 9 square grid

Link to steve Job's live keynote address June 9 at the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco

This research began with the premise that video game play, especially as it relates to participation in persistent virtual worlds, provides fictional spaces where players engage in cognitive and communicative practices that can be personally transformative in prosocial ways. Players' experiences with these worlds are as much defined by the technical design and construction of these spaces as they are influenced by the socio-cultural arrangements that develop. In support of this belief, we collected data on children's experiences with a range of technologies germane to the Digital Age, including their participation in the Quest Atlantis environment, an immersive space for learning that is intended to engage children ages 9-12 in a form of dramatic play comprising both online and real-world learning activities. By enlisting this innovation to nonintrusively collect data about children's participation as well as their engagement with media more generally, the research team was able to move beyond an ethnographic study of what already exists in the world and develop a grounded appreciation for what an innovative technology-rich context might make possible in the future.