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"Google has recently released several updates to some of its major services including its search functionality. Being the top search engine on the web, Google is trying hard to sophisticate the way it filters and respond to users search queries through including some important features like customization, personalization, and localization. Google has also been investing in the power of social media particularly its tool Google Plus to recommend search results to searchers. Whether this is the beginning of a social revolution in web searching is too early to answer."

"Want to quickly search the web or Wikipedia from the Home Screen of iOS? Just turn to Spotlight, the built-in search engine. Sure, Spotlight is often used as an application launcher or a way to quickly find old emails, notes, and contacts, but you can also type more generic queries into it the search box to immediately search either the web or Wikipedia. It's super easy to use and very fast:"

"When electrical engineering professor Dr. Karen Shoop of Queen Mary University in London took her first knitting workshop, she noticed immediately that knitting is very similar to writing computer code. "I noticed that knitting instructions are largely binary (like computers) - in other words, knit or purl," she said. "More interesting were the knitting instructions, which read just like regular expressions [of code], used for string matching and manipulation when coding." Shoop also recognizes that the earliest stages of computing were inspired by handwork: "Of course, computers ultimately started off partially inspired by weaving and the Jacquard loom, or earlier Bouchon's loom. Arguably some of the earliest programmers were the people making the card/paper punch hole patterns for weaving patterns.""

"Flickr is a great image hosting website that you can use to store and share your images. Flickr is also a powerful image search engine where you can find images others have posted. As a teacher, you can probably use this platform with your students to look for pictures to include in classroom projects. However, not all pictures are free to use and as we have mentioned in our Copyright Section here in Educational Technology and Mobile Learning, there are certain conditions under which you are allowed to re-use people's images but only for non commercial purposes, these conditions are mostly included under a Creative Commons License."

"The handy infographic below takes a look at how Google has changed student research with a special focus on graduate students. Google is not only the most widely used search engine, but they've developed a lot of education specific research tools to help students out. Keep reading to learn more."

"Digital literacy, as a set of skills that students need to develop and master in order to properly use digital technologies , is an essential component of the 21st century education. Being digitally literate should not be confused with being comfortable using certain types of digital media such as social media. And as Danah Boyd argued in her book "Understanding The Social Lives of Networked Teens" teenagers know how how to use Facebook, but their understanding of the site's privacy settings did not mesh with the ways in which they configured their accounts.They know how to get to Google but had little understanding about how to construct a query to get quality information from the popular search engine. Along with learning how to conduct effective online searches comes the the second most important skill which is that of evaluating and assessing the validity of information found online. One of the versatile tools teachers can use to teach students about web content evaluation is called CRAAP . The acronym CRAAP stands for Currency, Relevance, Authority, and Purpose. CRAAP is a test developed by the University of California at Chico to help students evaluate web content ( and any other content) based on those four dimensions. Below is a public domain document, a checklist, that teachers and students can use to evaluate web content. Click here to download it."

"o describe them simply, makerspaces are community centers with tools. Makerspaces combine manufacturing equipment, community, and education for the purposes of enabling community members to design, prototype and create manufactured works that wouldn't be possible to create with the resources available to individuals working alone. These spaces can take the form of loosely-organized individuals sharing space and tools, for-profit companies, non-profit corporations, organizations affiliated with or hosted within schools, universities or libraries, and more. All are united in the purpose of providing access to equipment, community, and education, and all are unique in exactly how they are arranged to fit the purposes of the community they serve. Makerspaces represent the democratization of design, engineering, fabrication and education. They are a fairly new phenomenon, but are beginning to produce projects with significant national impacts."

"Whether you are looking for resources related to integrating science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) or infusing arts, design, and humanities to transform STEM into STEAM, this curated compilation will help you strategize around different approaches to integrated studies."

"Learn the basics of searching Google using search engine math. Learn the basics of Google image search and why spelling correctly is so important."

"Google Image is one of the powerful image search engines online and it is probably one of the first options students head to when searching for images to use in their multimedia projects.Of course, there other several other great platforms for searching for images to use for educational purposes but today I want to focus on Google Image and share with you some overlooked tips that students need to pay heed to when searching for images. Using these tips, students will be able to : Search images by usage rights Search images by type Search image with specific set of colours Search image by size "

"Everyone uses Google for random queries, but it's way more powerful than a traditional search engine. Check out these Google tips and tricks that'll change the way you look for stuff online for good."

"While In college I learned about engineering in a makerspace. I learned how to communicate in a makerspace. I learned how to organize people in a makerspace. But it took a year of operating a mobile makerspace to realize the true value of these environments."

"In this wonderful video Google engineers Liu and Merrified share some interesting tips and insights on how to effectively search your Gmail and  Drive.The purpose is to enable you to tap into some hidden gems that will allow you to search for what you need in Gmail or Drive quickly and accurately. All of the search tips Liu and Merrified talked about in this tutorial include search and Boolean operators. This document from Gmail Help features some of the most useful operators to use when conducting internal searches in your Gmail. You should definitely bookmark and keep it for reference."

"I've shared some great apps from The Lawrence Hall of Science (DIY Human Body, DIY Sun Science, Monster Heart Medic) and DIY Nano HD is another free app for iPads that you'll love.  DIY Nano HD contains easy science experiments for teachers, students and families.  Using easy to find materials children can follow along with instructions on the screen to learn about nanoscale science, engineering, and technology.  This app contains videos, images and informational text that can help students learn about expository writing styles including how-tos and step-by-step guides."

"I first heard about the maker movement last summer. I initially thought that this was a direct arm of the STEAM movement to incorporate arts into science, technology, engineering and math. It has been part of my own genius hour to continue to explore and learn more about the maker movement. Here's a little about the path that I've followed so far..."

"Giving children the tools to succeed in a rapidly changing technology-based economy is the key to ensuring their future success. Making sure kids are excited by science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) concepts hasn't been America's strong suit, but with the "STEAM" movement, we have a shot at engaging kids like never before."

"What motivates people to work? Most people would say money, and those people would only be partially correct. In Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, author Daniel Pink writes about radical practices implemented by Australian software company Atlassian and search engine giant Google that have taught us a lot about what really motivates human beings to work. Hint: it is not the proverbial carrot on a stick."

"This study guide outlines questions and discussion topics, along with additional readings and videos for a book club or study group about Invent To Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom. This study guide was conceived as a 6 week online course, but it would be easy to modify for a different time frame or face-to-face group. "