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"8-year-old Kaori Misue was born without fingers. Usually, creating specialized prosthetics costs upwards of $15,000. However, thanks to a 21-year-old inventor, Misue received a prosthetic hand which has changed her life. Gino Tubaro is offering kids born without limbs the chance to receive a cheap 3D printed prosthetic. Misue's mother, Karina Misue, adds: "It was magical… The confidence it gives kids is tremendous. They're using it with pride." Tubaro's 3D printed prosthetic designs are part of the "Alternative Limbs Project", which began in his home of Argentina. The prints come in a range of designs, offering users the chance to decide what they need the prosthetic for most, whether it's playing an instrument or ping-pong. The prosthetics for kids can even be superhero themed (and shoot rubber bands)."

"Every March, my students hold their book clubs.  It is something we work toward all year and by spring they are mostly all excited to do them.  As I have tweaked the process, one of the biggest changes I made was to step away from only a few selected books for them to read and instead open it up to as many books as possibly.  With the help of the great selection of cheap books at Books4schools.com our book club set selection is now over 50 different titles and I am always looking to expand.  We no longer have a theme to the books, besides whether or not they are a great book, and students seem to always be able to find several books that they would like to dig into."

"Few trends in K-12 ed tech are as hot-or as under-researched-as "Maker" education. The term generally refers to using a wide variety of hands-on activities (such as building, computer programming, and sewing) to support academic learning and the development of a mindset that values playfulness and experimentation, growth and iteration, and collaboration and community.  Typically, "Making" involves attempting to solve a particular problem, creating a physical or digital artifact, and sharing that product with a larger audience. Often, such work is guided by the notion that process is more important than results. The Maker Movement has its roots outside of school, in institutions such as science museums and in the informal activities that everyday people have taken part in for generations. It began exploding about a decade ago, thanks in large part to the enthusiastic audience of Make magazine and the popularity of public events such as Maker Faires (the most well-known of which was hosted by President Barack Obama at the White House in 2014.) The rise of cheap digital tools, including microcontroller platforms such as Arduino and rapid-prototyping tools such as 3-D printers, has in recent years lent the movement a decidedly techie flavor. Efforts to bring Making and "Maker spaces" into K-12 schools are still "nascent," said Erica Halverson, an associate professor of curriculum and instruction at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a leading researcher into Maker education. But that's changing fast."

"You've read about the maker movement. You've seen the posts with 3D printers, laser cutters, and three-axis mills in shiny new labs. And you want your students to start making, too. But you've got one big problem: you don't have a full lab -- or even a 3D printer -- because, like many educators, you don't have the biggest budget. Maybe you have no budget at all. But what if you could get started making tomorrow and didn't need all the fancy tools to join this movement? Making starts with a mindset, and simple materials are all that you need to get started. There are resources all around you, materials hidden in plain sight, tools just waiting to be used for a creative purpose. And with a little dose of ingenuity, you'll have your students making in no time. One perfect way start making on the cheap is through upcycling, the intentional transformation of hard-to-recycle materials into new products, thus saving them from the landfill. This type of real-world project not only teaches making skills but also helps you integrate making into your subject area. Study material science, explore industrial design, or dig into environmental education. As an added bonus, a project like this ignites your students' entrepreneurial spirit. Here's the five-step strategy that I've used to get my students making products out of hard-to-recycle materials. These steps could be done in one class period each, but if you want more time for ideas and iteration, feel free to expand the timeline as you go. Expect a beautiful mess, a bit of chaos, and a lot of fun as your students start to save the landfills -- by design."

"Making movies on the iPad is one of those activities that I often see in schools. I love to watch how quickly even very young students can produce a professional looking movie. It is a great way for them to illustrate what they have learnt. Normally I would say that editing movies on the iPad is best done using iMovie but it is not exactly cheap, especially if you have a raft of other apps you want your students to have. Here are a couple of apps for editing movies that do not cost the earth. Many of these apps also contain features found on the more expensive apps."

"When you need a quick pick-me-up, how much bang for your buck will you get at Starbucks? Chances are you probably order one of a handful of drinks and stick to that group on a regular basis. However, this in-depth chart from Thrillist might help you try something new if you're looking to juice up on the cheap."

"The Arduino vs Raspberry Pi debate  has caused a bit of confusion to beginners on what these 2 little devices actually do. They are both pretty cheap, the same size, and to the untrained eye, look very similar. However they are very different.  The Raspberry Pi is a mini-computer, running a Linux operating system, and the Arduino is a microcontroller, without the typical OS style you may be used to. They both are focused on very different ideas."

"Chromebooks are making gigantic inroads in the education sector. Several school districts here in Canada and the States are adopting them as teaching tools within classrooms. Their growing popularity among the education community is attributable not only to their reasonably cheap price but also to a host of excellent features that you can not find in other devices. Chromebooks are easier to handle, faster and more secure. They are also " instantly personalizable by each student or teacher, and easy to manage, making them an ideal solution for bringing the power of the web to your classrooms". "

"Making the ordinary extraordinary… This picture was one I picked up a couple of years ago on Twitter and it sparked a creative note. Having experimented with the approach to place value and reading numbers in this way it has very good effect. Especially when the students make the tool themselves. Younger students can get to grips with the position of numbers and the zeros prompt them to say the correct magnitude if they are a little unsure. You could write the words too underneath the numbers if necessary. Its a lovely class project for year 3 and 4 and it's cheap too. It is also great for intervention at a later stage, with older students."

"You could call it a trashlight, a handy and handsome AA flashlight made out of little more than a soda can and a cereal box (plus a bulb and two AA batteries). Before you say anything, yes, of course you can buy super-cheap penlights like this. But that would be largely missing the point here. This is about making something yourself, something out of nothing. And I guarantee you that if you take the time to do this project, to render literal garbage into an useful everyday tool, you will get the warmest, fuzziest feeling every time you illuminate some dark corner of your world with it."

A simple, cheap technology with a funny name will become an even more powerful portal into creative teaching and learning this year. Educators, if you haven't already, meet the wiki.

"Kids and iPads are a better fit than you'd think-as long as those little hands are clean. Thanks to a batch of free games, storybooks and teaching tools, the iPad can be a great tool for brightening a child's mind. And, unlike the iPad, a raft of great kids' apps are cheap."

Forex trading is a very profitable venture. However, you have to learn how to effectively trade the forex or how to effectively invest inthe currency market. If you don't take the time to learn to invest safely in the forex market, then you will just be one of those whose account balance is transferred every time to someone else's account. You don't want this to happen to you. So take your forex trading education seriously. It will safe you time and money in the long run. Don't be cheap with your education.

"Making can take a number of fascinating and educationally valuable forms. From arts and crafts to coding and design, just about any interest can be used to spark a passion in creation and making. One form of making that has become increasingly simple, cheap and more and more popular in schools is that of 3D modelling. SketchUp is the most popular 3D modelling tool available, and with a featureful and free version (SketchUp Make) available to educators, it's most certainly a great place for any class to start reimagining the world in 3D."