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"Today Google released two standalone apps for Google Docs and Google Sheets. They are available for iOS and Android, and perhaps most exciting of all, another new app for Slides is on its way. So, how are they different to the iOS Drive app? Let's find out."

"Here's a tip we published almost four years ago, but seeing as I used it quite recently at work, I thought I'd give it a refresh. Now that iPads are infiltrating the office space and boardrooms, I see more and more co-workers wanting to take videos and other files into meetings with them. This isn't a problem on a PC or Mac because they can just use USB drives, but iOS 7 devices like the iPad aren't as easy to transfer files to (iOS 8 will change this a bit with iCloud Drive, but it's not here yet). Fortunately, as long as you have a computer running a recent version of iTunes, it's fairly easy to transfer files to an iPad using the USB cable (30-pin or Lightning, depending on your device):"

"While Macs have a great reputation for being stable and rarely experiencing major issues, the reality is that sometimes things can go wrong. Typically this happens when either a hard drive fails or an OS X system update goes completely awry, but if you have set up Time Machine backups on the Mac like all users should, then you will discover that restoring an entire systems hard drive from that Time Machine backup is really quite easy."

"Should You Buy A Solid State External Hard Drive?"

"For the past couple of years I've been really fortunate to have access to iPads in my classroom. The increased access to this mobile technology has provided my students with that many more individualized opportunities to show and share their learning. Now if you're new to this blog you may not realize that student choice and voice is something I believe very strongly about. Very strongly. This means I am constantly looking for apps that allow my students to learn, show, and share their knowledge in innovative ways. As a result I purchase and download many, many iPad apps for my work iPad. I take them for a test drive sort of speak before they make their way onto the iPads my students have access to. The reality is very few apps I test drive end up on my student's iPads. But why? Below you will find some of the questions I ask (and why) before an app will make it on my students iPads. I am hoping this information will be of benefit for both teachers purchasing apps for their students, and developers creating apps for students. Here are my top eight questions."

"Looking for ways to motivate your students? Mia from Anethicalisland has 27 strategies for you to use in class to get your students motivated.These strategies cover both types of motivation: intrinsic motivation (an inner drive to engage in an activity for its own sake because it is interesting and satisfying in itself), and extrinsic ( a drive to engage in an activity because of a reward to engage in the activity or a punishment for not engaging). Check them out below and share with us what you think of them."

"Since this year's WWDC keynote ended, the focus of any analysis on iOS 8 has been its features - things like Continuity, Extensions, and iCloud Drive. This is, of course, expected: iOS is the operating system that drives Apple's most important (and most profitable) products, so it's natural that the limelight be shone on the new features for the mass market. As I've written, however, the Accessibility features that Apple includes in iOS are nonetheless just as important and innovative as the A-list features that Craig Federighi demoed on stage at Moscone. Indeed, Apple is to be lauded for their year-over-year commitment to improving iOS's Accessibility feature set, and they continue that trend with iOS 8. Here, I run down what's new in Accessibility in iOS 8, and explain briefly how each feature works."

"Rugged Rovers is a free iPad app in which students can create simple designs for space rovers. Students draw a design for their rovers then add up eight wheels to it before taking it for a virtual test drive. Students test their rover designs by driving them across a Mars spacescape."

"Google Keep, Google's easy to use note taking app, is a great resource for students and teachers. Here are some of the features: * Easily, quickly, Create notes, lists, and audio notes * Add photos to any note * Hide and show checkboxes to turn notes into checkable lists * View and create notes from homescreen and lockscreen widgets * Selectable color for notes * Safely sync notes to Google Drive and other devices * Notes can also be used from http://drive.google.com/keep"

"Google Drive on the iPad provide teachers and students an effective way of accessing, organising, sharing and providing feedback on student work. In the following slides an effective workflow is proposed with examples.  View the slides for step by step instructions or download it as a PDF (below)."

You can easily transfer files between Macs through USB drive or a conventional file-sharing services via network connections. Also, these days' synchronization services like BitTorrent Sync, Dropbox, and Google Drive are highly used. Nowadays, you can use Mac Screen Sharing services to transfer files.

1.5TB mobile drive

"But when you're new at something, it's slow. It's painful, even. You suck at it. And when you realize you suck at it, you feel defeated. You second-guess every move. You are thinking so intentionally about every step that you sometimes feel like you are going nowhere. Over time, though, it becomes the backdrop. You've moved past the mechanics and you know what you're doing. It's a bit like driving a car. Remember when you sucked at driving? Remember when your heart would race if you went on the freeway? Remember when you had to tell yourself to turn on the turn signal? Well, that's what it's like when you are new at a creative process. You're suddenly the pimple-faced new driver trying to avoid an accident. I mention this, because I notice students who have never hit a place of creative fluency. They have no creative endurance. They give up quickly. They get frustrated too easily. They need too many instructions. But, honestly, it's because creativity has always been icing on the cake (which, honestly, is precisely what makes carrot cake a cake and not a loaf of zucchini bread). It's always been a "when we get to it" activity. It's been the culminating project. Then suddenly you have students who struggle to get anything done. However, it's not laziness. It's actually the byproduct of rarely getting the chance to make anything. "

"A driving strategy that serves students-whether pursuing self-knowledge or academic content-is questioning. Questioning is useful as an assessment strategy, catalyst for inquiry, or "getting unstuck" tool. It can drive entire unit of instruction as an essential question. In other words, questions transcend content, floating somewhere between the students and their context. Questions are more important than the answers they seem designed to elicit. The answer is residual-requires the student to package their content to please the question-maker, which moves the center of gravity from the student's belly to the educator's marking pen. In that light, I was interested when I found the visual above. It's okay to say "I don't know." Teach your students how to develop questions (because) it helps conquer their own confusion. Rebeca Zuniga was inspired to create the above visual by the wonderful Heather Wolpert-Gawron (from the equally wonderful edutopia, and also her own site, tweenteacher). The whole graphic is wonderful, but it's that I don't know that really resonated with me. Traditionally, this phrase is seen as a hole rather than a hill. I don't know means I'm missing information that I'm supposed to have."

"Remote controlled cars are fun, sure, but self-driving robotic cars are even more fun. In this tutorial, we'll build a four-wheeled robot that can drive around and avoid obstacles. I purchased this complete 4WD kit from AliExpress, but you could easily buy most of these components from an electronics store and put it together yourself. I recommend reading through all of the instructions before you start, as that will make some things clear that might be confusing on the first time through. Also, this may look like a very long, advanced project due to the length of the instructions, but it's actually pretty simple. No need to be intimidated - this is a beginner level project that you can get some satisfying results with, then build upon as you learn more. Don't like this style of robot? Here's some more Arduino robots you could easily build instead."

"For too long, the American education system failed too many kids, including far too many poor kids and kids of color, without enough public notice or accountability. To combat this, leaders of all political persuasions championed the use of testing to measure progress and drive better results. Measurement has become so common that in school districts from coast to coast you can now find calendars marked "Data Days," when teachers are expected to spend time not on teaching, but on analyzing data like end-of-year and mid-year exams, interim assessments, science and social studies and teacher-created and computer-adaptive tests, surveys, attendance and behavior notes. It's been this way for more than 30 years, and it's time to try a different approach. The big numbers are necessary, but the more they proliferate, the less value they add. Data-based answers lead to further data-based questions, testing, and analysis; and the psychology of leaders and policymakers means that the hunt for data gets in the way of actual learning. The drive for data responded to a real problem in education, but bad thinking about testing and data use has made the data cure worse than the disease."

A significant shift continues to occur within global education markets. It is signified by the manner in which it makes sense to speak of a global education market. It is driven by neo-liberalism and the expansion of markets into all aspects of our lives and it is made possible by manipulation of the third messaging system within the educational triad of curriculum, pedagogy and assessment. It is a drive towards accountable, comparable and productive education systems fine-tuned to maximise the return on investment and provide industry with the workforce it desires. What must be asked is how does this trend impact students and are these the forces that should be driving change in our education systems?

"Canada Learning Code will drive the development and implementation of an action plan to create 10 million meaningful technology education experiences for Canadians over the next 10 years. Through program design and delivery, strategic industry and public partnerships, educator training, research, advocacy and awareness we aim to unify coding education in Canada and drive results."

"At TeachThought, nothing interests us more than students, as human beings. What they know, might know, should know, and do with what they know. A driving strategy that serves students-whether pursuing self-knowledge or academic content-is questioning. Questioning is useful as an assessment strategy, catalyst for inquiry, or "getting unstuck" tool. It can drive entire unit of instruction as an essential question. In other words, questions transcend content, floating somewhere between the students and their context. Questions are more important than the answers they seem designed to elicit. The answer is residual-requires the student to package their content to please the question-maker, which moves the center of gravity from the student's belly to the educator's marking pen. In that light, I was interested when I found the visual above. It's okay to say "I don't know." Teach your students how to develop questions (because) it helps conquer their own confusion. Rebeca Zuniga was inspired to create the above visual by the wonderful Heather Wolpert-Gawron (from the equally wonderful edutopia, and also her own site, tweenteacher). The whole graphic is wonderful, but it's that I don't know that really resonated with me. Traditionally, this phrase is seen as a hole rather than a hill. I don't know means I'm missing information that I'm supposed to have."