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"I believe in the importance of participating in ongoing and continuous reflective practice as an educator. This is my reflection on my Cardboard Challenges Maker Education Camp that was taught to twelve 5 to 10 year old learners for five days, 2.5 hours each morning.  My Cardboard Challenges webpage of ideas can be found at http://www.makereducation.com/cardboard-challenge.html. This post is divided into three sections: (1) a rationale for using no tech, minimal cost materials, (2) some of my general observations about how the learners interacted with the materials, the projects, and each other during the camp, and (3) a description of the specific cardboard activities along with my observations how well they worked with the learners."

"One of the most important skills of the 21st century - web literacy - is often overlooked in the classroom. The ability to read, write and participate online is an indispensable skill for learners, but it's curiously absent from many educators' curricula. At Mozilla, we believe web literacy should be a cornerstone of education. When students can create their own content on the Web, tinker with HTML, and understand the basics of online privacy, they're empowered to do great things. We also believe web literacy is best taught through hands-on, interactive learning. We've just wrapped up Maker Party, Mozilla's annual celebration of teaching and learning the Web through hands-on activities. But Maker Parties can be held anywhere, anytime. And our resources for teaching web literacy are free and open source, always. To kickstart web literacy learning in your classroom - or outside of it - here are six tools and activities from Maker Party for teaching critical 21st-century skills:"

"From the two-year old startup Sensopia, the MagicPlan iOS app is rolling out version 2.0 of its floor plan capturing application today, which allows you to hold up your phone then scan the dimensions of the room to create an instant floor plan. Once created, the plan can be exported to DXF, PDF, JPEG and even HTML for viewing on the web."

"What it is: mobimaths is a brand new math app for iOS and Android devices. I love the mission of mobimaths: to move away from textbooks and rote memorization and toward real world problems with an emphasis on communication and collaboration. It doesn't get better than that! " Lesson Plans: http://www.mobimaths.com/lessons.html

"TouchDevelop is a handy tool I have been exploring for about a year or so. What I loved about it initially was that it is browser based and HTML5 meaning it works on all tablets and devices - yes, ALL devices…even you Mr. iOS. Did I mention is it web based? No bugging your IT people for app installations!"

"There is a shortage of people who know how to program. These are high quality, high paying jobs. How do we encourage students to learn how to code? Learning to programming not only is a skill that is in high demand, it is also incredibly useful. We have all wished we had an app or a program that would do a particular thing that is specific to ourselves. I know some HTML and some JavaScript and Google Apps Script and it is amazing what you can do with just a little knowledge"

"E.A.K. teaches code using 'stealth learning' - our goal is to provide learners with their first steps towards digital literacy in the most entertaining way possible. By changing the source code of the levels - written in HTML and CSS, just like a web page - players must rescue kittens to complete the game."

"For the past couple of weeks, I have been preparing to teach a summer school/camp on maker education (see http://www.makereducation.com/summer-camp-schedule.html). As part of my preparation, I decided compose a list of promises to my learners as a maker educator."

Dave Eggers TED Talk - http://www.ted.com/speakers/dave_eggers.html