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"Technology influences education. It's a bit late to discuss how social media and technology may reshape learning and schools. The train has already departed and so we can observe some changes taking place. There are plenty of ways to go about it-social learning networks currently offer first class tickets to the "next-gen" learning."

"Prince of Persia - £335 million at the box office. Lara Croft: Tomb Raider - £150 million at the box office. Resident Evil - £200 million at the box office What do all these movies have in common? They are all video games that were developed into films. With other popular video games currently being made into films, such as, Angry Birds, Temple Run and Assassin's Creed, it seems Hollywood is exploiting the popularity and the storytelling potential of video games. Why not do it in the classroom?"

"On Friday, the second graders had a blast exploring the Augmented Reality app called Chromville. To use this free app, you must first print and color out the special pages from the Chromville website (link below). Currently there are 6 pages - I chose the page that lets you create a character because of the creative possibilities that it offered. Students designed and colored their character during the week and came with the completed sheets to technology class."

"Apple announced some great new features in iOS8 last week. iCloud Drive will be an excellent addition to file structure implentation for iPads. Users will be able to take advantage of these features in the fall. Until then, this new tip will come in very handy if you are still using Microsoft office on other computers. Currently, iCloud storage of files has somewhat been "hit and miss" for consumers in terms of reliability and ease of use."

"As we head towards a world where coding is considered a necessary skill, teaching pupils the basics of programming has never been more crucial. Unlike the common belief that coding is a specialised skill only applicable to selected areas, programming is actually used in almost all industries. Coding is not for young adults and 'geeks' anymore; even elementary students can easily dive into this complex world with the use of modern day technology. The qualm that people have against teaching coding so early usually involves lack of space in the current curriculum and the lack of confidence (in the child or teacher's) ability to code themselves. Thanks to the rise in popularity of mobile technology and apps, even the most inexperienced user can easily learn the core concepts of coding. Below are great apps which you can utilise to learn and teach basic programming."

"As those who follow me on Twitter and via this blog know, I am an advocate of the Maker Education movement.  The reason, as I've mentioned, is that I come from a background in Experiential Education.  Many of underlying principles and learning activities related to maker education fit nicely into the tenets and principles related to experiential education.  Since this discipline-learning philosophy has been around a lot longer than the more formalized, current maker education movement, those attempting to move maker education into more traditional educational settings might draw from the writings and literature of experiential education to help explain and contextualized maker education."

"My Incredible Body is an iPad app (currently free) designed to help students learn how the human body works. The app features eight sections. Those sections are circulation, muscles, senses (vision, smell, hearing, touch), kidneys & urine, skeleton, respiration, digestion, and brain & nerves. Each section of the app contains short animated videos that explain the functions of each system and how it works."

"We believe in a future where every child leaves school knowing how to code. It's not realistic to expect educators to achieve this on their own, developers and the wider community must help. The amazing thing is that many developers believe in our cause and want work with educators to make this happen- someone just needs to bring them together. That's where we step in. We provide a platform where educators can post code-related projects, request a custom project or pick from our growing base of pre-defined projects. Developers can browse projects in their local area and connect with the educators to take discussions further and bring authentic learning opportunities to the classroom. So, we're currently looking for our founding partners to get the ball rolling. If you know anyone or would like to become a founding partner, please get in touch with us (team@codefuture.org)!"

"One of my dearest colleagues in the world was in the classroom, full-time, for more than 30 years. She was inspiring students for all that time and left when her body and mind were simply too tired to continue. I was in awe of her, but her path will most likely not be the path of many teachers in this current generation of educators."

"This summer PracTutor is offering their online curriculum completely free for students.  This personalized curriculum includes a diagnostic pre-test that measures current learning levels and customizes a learning path for every student.  This summer your students can practice Math and English skills through various question types, manipulatives, and videos with scaffolds and support."

"Education-bashing has become something of a national sport in the United States. From hurling criticism about slipping test scores, socio-economic disparity, dropout rates, to raising concerns about poor teaching standards and school resources, the popular narrative is that U.S. schools are failing children. There's good reason for the pile-on: in many cases, the problems are real. While most of the conversation around education reform centers on how to address these existing issues, another point of view has been gaining momentum over the last several years. It's a point of view that is less focused on fine-tuning the current system for high performance-since the system was built in 1893 with the goal of churning out "good workers"-and more about rethinking education entirely and how it meets the world's rapidly changing economy in the information age. This topic is explored in depth in the feature-length documentary, Most Likely to Succeed, which premiered at Sundance and will appear at the Tribeca Film Festival April 24. In the film, director, writer and producer Greg Whiteley casts a light on the shortcomings of established education methods by focusing on one school that's defying convention, San Diego's High Tech High. While following two ninth-grade classes for a year, with classroom instruction unlike anything you've ever seen, the doc offers some inspirational ideas for how to help students rise to the occasion of an innovation economy that requires critical thinking."

"The idea of connecting with other educators, school leaders, and parents online is a great one. But figuring out where to start can be a challenge. Currently, about 80% of U.S. teachers are on social media and using it to become better at their profession. In an effort to make sure these teachers are making the most of their time, we wanted to put together a handy visual guide that will help you grow your professional learning network (PLN) using social media. These tips and ideas are simple and there's a big reason for that. Instead of giving you 50-100 different ways to use the social networks, we wanted to start small. Teachers have basically no time to learn 100 different ways to use Twitter so why not instead offer our best tips in one simple-to-use visual."

"When I attend yoga classes, the instructor guides participants through a series of poses. An outsider unfamiliar with yoga might think the class was instructor-directed, with everyone moving through poses as they are called out. The truth is that people add or subtract movements based on their comfort, drive, and current capabilities. (My favorite is Child's Pose to catch my breath before rejoining the flow of movements.) This culture where participants shape the class along with the instructor is something I've found in every yoga class that I've attended. Education culture can be just as powerful when students, like yoga class participants, are encouraged to help shape what and how learning takes place every day. It requires teachers to view what students can do alongside us. I already explored this in Student-Centered Learning: It Starts With the Teacher. There are many tools for establishing a culture of student voice. Here are some that are easy to implement as you launch your students' journey."

"There are so many movements and initiatives in education. The vocabulary changes from time to time, and it's important to keep current. There's always something new. We try new things, read new things, and emulate successes in other people's classroom. This is the time to start thinking about what worked this year, things we might try for next year, and ways to think about helping students take initiative. This week's Learnist feature is dedicated to education initiatives and ideas-things to think about using next year."

"A year and a half ago I decided to implement a job-embedded growth model at the suggestion of some of my teacher leaders. They desperately sought time during the school day to engage in professional growth opportunities, learn how to integrate Web 2.0 tools, and develop their own Personal Learning Networks (PLN's). After some thinking and looking at various options inherent in the current schedule, I decided to cut all non-instructional duties in half to create a Professional Growth Period (PGP). The inspiration for this idea came from Google's 80/20 Innovation Model where engineers are encouraged to take 20 percent of their time to work on something company-related that interests them personally. Duties that we cut are now assumed by me and my administrative team."

"The simple truth is that turning students on to nonfiction reading - proving that articles from sources like Popular Science and Gizmodo and National Geographic can be JUST as amazing as The Hunger Games or The Lightning Thief or The Lunar Chronicles - is probably the MOST important contribution that I can make to the academic and intellectual growth of my students. Being exposed to high interest articles from a wide range of fields - space science, biology, chemistry, earth science - might just introduce kids to personal passions and future professions.  Seeing science in action turns what could be just another boring subject in school into an interesting career worth pursuing.  Just as importantly, exposing kids to high interest nonfiction text on a regular basis will build their comfort level with a genre that will increasingly define the reading that they do as middle schoolers, high schoolers and adults. So I'm trying something new this year:  I'm going to use Remind - a free service that allows teachers to send out text and/or email updates to parents and students - to share two or three interesting science current events every week."

"The UK is on a mission to create a nation of coders. A new GCSE for programming is set to launch and everyone from business leaders to celebrities are getting behind the campaign to boost the country's tech talent. The current trend follows the influential Next Gen report, which warned that the UK was losing out to overseas developers through the lack of technology specialists at home. The move from infrastructure to the cloud and the boom in smartphones and tablets have further increased demand. To meet the challenge, the government is spearheading a push to get more kids coding and to increase vocational skills. Education secretary, Nicky Morgan, recently told teenagers to stay away from the arts and to opt for science and maths if they want access to the widest range of jobs. Every child should learn to program, but not necessarily how to code Read more As an employer of more than 85 staff at a fast-growing UK tech company, I consider Morgan's approach as potentially short-sighted. For Potato, while coding expertise has been essential, employing staff from a variety of backgrounds has also been key to our success."

"One of the basic tenets and strengths of the maker movement is its emphasis on constructive and collaborative learning through hands-on, trial-and-error experimentation. While a live mentor demonstrating and leading activities is the gold standard, a growing number of titles offer inspiration, support, and clarification for a wide variety of maker topics. The following list of recommended books was crowdsourced by librarians running maker spaces and/or offering maker programming in their libraries or schools."

"Professional and personal development are important to many people. Professional development allows you to stay current in your field, make connections with likeminded professionals, and satisfy any continuing learning requirements your job may have. Personal development allows you to grow as a person, learn new skills, and try new things. In order to grow, professionally or personally, in the past, you had to sign up for college courses, pay a lot of money, and rush to class after work or on weekends. But that set-up as changed. Online courses, many of which are totally free, have revolutionized the way in which many people access professional and personal development. Thanks to the advent of massive open online courses (MOOCs), people can attend free courses offered by Stanford, Harvard, and MIT in the luxury of their own home, taking the courses at their own pace at a time that is convenient."

"While Apple has traditionally positioned the iPad as a media-consumption device, the tablet has gained a reputation as a very capable and powerful music-creation tool. GarageBand is a great place to start, but taking the next step can be difficult when faced with an overwhelming number of creative options. Don't worry: we'll point you toward the very best block-rockin' apps and accessories. Before we get started, be aware that the processors in older iPads simply don't pack enough punch to take on many of the top audio apps. You'll want nothing less than an original iPad mini, and the closer you can get to a current iPad Air 2, the better. Also, look for applications that support Inter-App Audio (IAA), Apple's protocol for inter-application operability. Now, let's rock!"