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This summer we've done a bunch of iPad training with students who will be tech leaders in their schools. We had students from 6th-10th grade in about 20 different schools (all with different setups!) It's been interesting to with so many different schools - because we've learned so much from them how many technical and philosophical choices there are when implementing iPads. Two things that are going to matter greatly are: 1) decisions about setting up the iPads and 2) what you expect the students to do with them.

"The Educational and Mobile Learning site highlighted a great step by step iPad task tutorial by the folks over at iSupport. They outline five tasks that "every modern teacher" should be able to do and use in their classrooms. It's a great list: A PDF A presentation An interactive book A podcast A movie I really like how they put together an easy way to see how using iPad tools can lead kids through low level to high levels of thinking and doing. But the list isn't comprehensive. And it might start past the point where some teachers are right now. So I've added five extra iPad basic skills that I think every teacher using iPads needs to have: Edit Photos"

"Digital Classroom: Teaching with Tech is a free professional learning community (PLC)"

"The International Reading Association has a fantastic app for students called Alphabet Organizer.  Available for both iOS and Android tablets, this app lets students work with different letters to create their very own alphabet book.  Alphabet Organizer can be tailored to different tasks and is a great choice for elementary school classrooms.  Students can use this in literacy centers or in learning environments where kids share the screen with a peer."

"Our back-to-school section here in EdTech and Mlearning is growing bigger and bigger with more resources being added to it every single week. Today, I am featuring 3 awesome web tools and mobile apps that you definitely have to try out with your students. I have also attached a video of Dottotech where he explains how you can use each of these tools. As a side note, Dottotech is a wonderful YouTube channel that provides ed tech tutorials on a variety of topics. I have recently discovered this channel through a tweet shared by a colleague and I find it really amazing."

"ChatterPix Kids lets your students put their voice to any image whether it's a historical figure, a character from their favorite book, or a photo of a friend.  Try having students use this app to demonstrate their understanding of the main character of a book or what they learned during a research project."

"Elk River school district is well aware of the benefits of learning coding in today's increasingly tech savvy world. Troy Anderson, Manager of Instructional Technology, spoke with us about their process for selecting and rolling out a curriculum that met their district technology goals."

"Bringing technology into the classroom often winds up an awkward mash-up between the laws of Murphy and Moore: What can go wrong, will - only faster. It's a multi-headed challenge: Teachers need to connect with classrooms filled with distinct individuals. We all want learning to be intrinsically motivated and mindful, yet we want kids to test well and respond to bribes (er, extrinsic rewards). Meanwhile, there's a multi-billion-dollar industry, in the US alone, hoping to sell apps and tech tools to school boards. There's no app for that."

"One of the fantastic parts about using mobile devices in your classroom is giving students the ability to explore locations that might be difficult for a field trip.  Children can access informational text, images and videos to learn about new places and inspire them to think beyond the walls of their school building."

Quest based learning platform?  A very edgy idea.