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"Ashley Kazyaka and the Colorado State Library invited me to speak to Coloradans/school librarians about makerspaces in affluent communities versus makerspaces in lower socio economic schools. I had a great time today discussing my passion for inclusive makerspaces and in case you missed it, here are the slides for my webinar and here is the Webinar recording!"

"I've been traveling the country speaking on the power of a student's voice in his or her own educational experience along with the need for transforming learning spaces in today's schools. Both topics are very important to me not only for my own passion as an educator, but as a parent of two children. I've personally seen the impact a learning space can have on a child's experience within the classroom. Additionally, I've been fortunate to have my children surrounded by caring educators who value the importance listening to students. This week I have the pleasure of speaking at Blackboard World in D.C. When I arrived at Blackboard World, I knew the first stop I had to make, the student maker space. Blackboard invited students from all ages to participate in a day of creating their ideal learning environments. The company partnered with the Smithsonian to provide resources and guides to help facilitate the activities. Children would rotate between 5 stations throughout the day - each station lasting roughly thirty minutes."

"The concept of literacy is notoriously elusive and hard to define. Aside from the shallow and intellectually-impaired  definition that sums up  literacy in  reading and writing printed text, any serious and profound investigation of literacy does, by implication, entail an analysis of the new ways of learning and meaning-making afforded by digitality. New digital media have provided learners with novel and revolutionary ways of producing, discussing, sharing and interacting with text. These ways, to say the least about them, are multimodally complex and call for an integrated set of skills that go beyond the mere ability to code and decode meaning. In this sense, to be literate in such a multimodal environment requires understanding and using a wide range of interconnected literacies. We are no longer talking about a single literacy as was the case since the invention of writing some 6000 year ago, we are, instead,  in front of multiple new emerging  and interdependent literacies. Today's students are asked to have a working knowledge of these literacies in order to be able to thrive in a globalized knowledge economy. Katchy Schrock has this wonderful resource where she features some awesome mini-posters defining the key literacies making up today's Literacy (with capital letter) landscape.  These visuals are ideal for classroom inclusion. I invite you to check them out and share with your colleagues."

"In the spirit of bringing more opportunities into learning environments, more and more schools are inviting students to bring their own technology. Shortened as BYOT or BYOD for Bring Your Own Device, the concept is catching on."

"I was fortunate enough last weekend to receive an invitation to the Sydney Catholic Schools Early Years Conference. I was interested because the conference was centred around creating a clear and coherent vision around Early Years pedagogy. I was also intrigued to see how the iPad fitted in with this vision. "

"The Maker movement continues to gain momentum. At this year's White House Science Fair, President Obama invited Super-Awesome Sylvia from Auburn, California to exhibit her water color robot as a representative of the Maker community. At the same event, the Corporation for National Service announced its commitment to place Americorps VISTAs in Maker movement organizations across the country. Maker Ed is placing those Maker VISTAs in makerspaces to help build their capacity for engaging low-income students as makers. In this spirit, we are starting to see more and more makerspaces springing up in schools across the country. If you are a teacher experimenting with making projects in your classroom, here are some successful fundraising strategies we've seen educators use to fund a makerspace for their school community. "

"There are times when taking a note in a written format is not a practical option. You might for instance be attending a lecture or a conference or you might simply prefer to listen to your recorded notes instead of reading them, in these cases apps such as the ones below are what you will use for audio note taking. While keeping the basic note taking features, all of these apps are fantastic for recording notes and adding audio to your notes. I invite you to check out the selection I have below and share with us what you thin about it."

"Below is a list I have been working on for awhile now. the list features some very useful Math websites specifically handpicked for teachers to use with their students. The initial list I compiled contained over 40 websites but as I reviewed it deeper I decided to take some out and keep the rest here. I invite you to have a loom and share with your colleagues. "

"In this quick post I want to share with you this beautiful interactive image on the SAMR model. I learned about this resource from a tweet shared by our colleague David Fife. As you can see from the image below, iPadders provided examples of how to use each classroom task according to the different SAMR categories. And in each category, a set of apps and tools are provided to help you carry out the task under study. I invite you to have a look and share with your colleagues. Enjoy"

"It's safe to say that of all the genres of literature we study in school, poetry is the most scary-and not just for the students. Sometimes poetry gets a bad rap for being too dense, too pretentious, too much of an acquired taste for mainstream consumption. While it's true that I could name many a poem that fits those descriptors, it's also true that working with poetry can be a most whimsical, intriguing, dare I say light-hearted experience for you and your students. Try one of these six strategies during National Poetry Month to invite your students to explore the jungle of this most-feared genre."

"This week I got an email from Apple inviting me to try out the Beta version of iWork for iCloud. I was keen to see how useful this could be for educators in the classroom, and whether or not it could be a serious contender to my current favorite online productivity suite - Google Drive. So, I logged in to iCloud with Chrome on my Mac and there they were - Pages, Numbers and Keynote - complete with all the documents I had created on my Mac and iPads."

"Primary Possibilities designed this awesome visual guide that walks you through the process of locking your students into the app you are working with them on. This is a good way to keep your students focused and on task. I am sharing this guide with you below and I invite you to spend some time on it."

"In the middle of October, we invited educators to tell us about the "apps, games, and websites that are helping to tranform their classrooms this year." We asked that you submit your responses in the form of Field Notes and we received more than 700 submissions! 43 products emerged with several votes and strong, detailed Field Notes to explain just how they are being used effectively at school. So here is our (albeit unscientific) list of apps, games, and websites transforming classrooms this Fall. "

"Here is a resource of some great education YouTube channels Saga has recently compiled. The list is organized according to different content areas and has over 190 YouTube channels making it one of the most comprehensive list I have ever come across online. I am sharing with you some of the channels from this list and invite you to check the full list HERE."

"Below are some good iPad apps for History and Geography teachers. I am sharing them with you on the occasion of the start of a new school year. I invite you to have a look and share with us if you have other titles to add to the list. If you want more resources for back to school I recommend that you check this resource section."

"Express your musicality! Between creation and entertainment, Incredibox invite you to become the conductor of a group of human beatbox."

"The following Google Hangout video call guide shows you how to get started, invite participants, record a call, collaborate over a Google Doc and more."

"George Takei knows how to tell a great story. In this case, a true story of his life. The famed Star Trek actor, activist, and social media star was in town recently to give a remarkable talk as part of a very special TEDxKyoto event. I was invited to watch the rehearsal just before the live event, so I arrived early and grabbed a front row seat. George did not give a speech in the traditional sense. There was no lectern, no notes, no teleprompter. George obviously was reciting the speech from memory-his live version was exactly the same as in the rehearsal-but the speech did not seem memorized. That is, when I was listening I was not aware that he was giving a speech or a prepared talk, I was just lost in the narrative flow of his story."

"Please join the organizers of the 2014 K12 Online Conference in congratulating our selected presenters for this year's conference! As in past years, our conference is organized into four strands. Each strand has an invited keynote speaker and additional selected speakers. Our conference begins October 13th with a pre-conference keynote presentation. Strands for 2014 are: Week of Oct 20 - 24: Stories for Learning and Games and Gamification Week of Oct 27 - 31: Passion Driven Learning and STEAM"