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Surely there must be some impact all of this technology is having on our brains and behaviours as even mere males become more competent at multi-tasking their technological devices.

"As educators across the country continue to examine the best ways of teaching and learning, a new lexicon is beginning to emerge that describes one particular approach - deeper learning. The phrase implies a rich learning experience for students that allows them to really dig into a subject and understand it in a way that requires more than just memorizing facts. The elements that make up this approach are not necessarily new - great teachers have been employing these tactics for years. But now there's a movement to codify the different pieces that define the deeper learning approach, and to spread the knowledge from teacher to teacher, school to school in the form of a Deeper Learning MOOC (massive open online course), organized by a group of schools, non-profits, and sponsored by the Hewlett Foundation. So what defines deeper learning? This group has identified six competencies: mastering content, critical thinking, effective written and oral communication, collaboration, learning how to learn, and developing academic mindsets."

"Smart reading is a skill that students develop through using a set of robust strategies in their reading and analyzing of texts. I am not talking here about critical reading or close reading (through both of these types can be part of smart reading), smart reading is about knowing what to read, when to read , and how to read it. It is a holistic kind of practice that integrates other key reading skills such as skimming and scanning. In this wonderful visual from Learning Commons are featured some useful strategies students can use to improve their reading competencies towards becoming better and smart readers. These strategies include:"

"ome widely held ideas about the way children learn can lead educators and parents to adopt faulty teaching principles Jan 1, 2015 Credit: Kiyoshi Takahase segundo MYTH HUMANS USE ONLY 10 PERCENT OF THEIR BRAIN FACT The 10 percent myth (sometimes elevated to 20) is mere urban legend, one perpetrated by the plot of the 2011 movie Limitless, which pivoted around a wonder drug that endowed the protagonist with prodigious memory and analytical powers. In the classroom, teachers may entreat students to try harder, but doing so will not light up "unused" neural circuits; academic achievement does not improve by simply turning up a neural volume switch. MYTH "LEFT BRAIN" and "RIGHT BRAIN" PEOPLE DIFFER FACT The contention that we have a rational left brain and an intuitive, artistic right side is fable: humans use both hemispheres of the brain for all cognitive functions. The left brain/right brain notion originated from the realization that many (though not all) people process language more in the left hemisphere and spatial abilities and emotional expression more in the right. Psychologists have used the idea to explain distinctions between different personality types. In education, programs emerged that advocated less reliance on rational "left brain" activities. Brain-imaging studies show no evidence of the right hemisphere as a locus of creativity. And the brain recruits both left and right sides for both reading and math. MYTH YOU MUST SPEAK ONE LANGUAGE BEFORE LEARNING ANOTHER FACT Children who learn English at the same time as they learn French do not confuse one language with the other and so develop more slowly. This idea of interfering languages suggests that different areas of the brain compete for resources. In reality, young children who learn two languages, even at the same time, gain better generalized knowledge of language structure as a whole. MYTH BRAINS OF MALES AND FEMALES DIFFER IN WAYS THAT DICTATE LEARNING ABILITIES FACT Diffe

"Schools are busy places filled with competing agendas. At Printrbot Learn, we believe that learning should be hands on. We believe that kids need opportunities to become builders, designers and inventors and that classrooms and schools should be spaces where all learners can pursue their passions. Teachers and students need all kinds of tools to do this. They need paints and clay. They need microscopes and sand tables. They need electronics, robotics and 3D printers. Each of these tools give us opportunities to dream, to imagine, to investigate and to design. We need to build learning spaces which are worthy of the passion and potential of our kids. While skills and tests are part of the reality of education, we want to do all that we can to ensure that kids, their curiosity and passions stay at the forefront of what we do. This is where making needs to be an important part of classroom life."

Whether you manufacture a product or are in the service sector - a private organization or a government agency - ISO is a fundamental business model. It is the foundation from which to build an enterprise. It focuses attention on organizational processes, your customers (internal and external), competency-based training, and continual improvement. That translates to improved business results.

Working with Excel - creating, viewing, editing and moving records - and understanding details thereof and deriving conclusion from it become easier with the advanced tools integrated with the Excel tables. For instance, if you want a row or column to come with total value, it would do so. Formatting and sorting data can be done in a quick and easy way without having much competence. And, eventually you can create a professional Excel tables that would help you manage information in a better manner.

"When used effectively, iPads can develop thinkers and problem solvers. They can be used to transform learning inside and outside of the classroom, and offer limitless opportunities. Many educators are effectively integrating technology in the classroom using iPads to achieve the 4C's, or "super skills," that digital learners need to compete in our global society. But in order to do that, the focus has to shift from apps to content: that's when true redefinition takes place. When my district rolled out our iPad initiative in 2012, teachers thought they needed specific apps for every content area. Eventually, we ended up with literally thousands of apps in our portal. This was extremely overwhelming, difficult to manage, and eventually, a turn-off for teachers. Are you ready to adjust your teaching for this new learning revolution? Let me take you inside the idea of SAMR with a helpful metaphor: Starbucks. The simplest way I know to describe the levels in the SAMR model is using a visual created by Tim Holt, who uses Starbucks as a unique way of looking at the model."

"Canada's anti-spam legislation (CASL) is in place to protect Canadians while ensuring that businesses can continue to compete in the global marketplace."

"Online abuse directed at teachers by parents has doubled in the last year due to an increase in the use of social media platforms like Snapchat and Instagram. In the last year, 40 per cent of teachers said they had been the victims of cyber bullying by parents, compared to 21 per cent a year earlier, a new survey has found. Threats made by parents also rose by 8 per cent from 2014. The increase coincides with the growing popularity of social media platforms like Instagram and Snapchat, with abuse on both rising 5 per cent from a year earlier. Most remarks are either abusive, sexist, racist or homophobic and are made in relation to a teacher's looks, competence or sexual orientation."

"It's one thing for celebrity hijinks or cute animal stories to take off on social media. That happens all the time. It's not too often a math problem goes viral, especially when it doesn't involve a complaint about Common Core. Over the weekend, Singapore TV personality Kenneth Kong posted a logic problem on his Facebook page that was given to high school kids competing in a math olympiad."

"If you visit Lighthouse Community Charter classrooms this fall, you'll see kindergarteners using power tools, second graders doing logo programming, third graders building circuit blocks, sixth graders programming microcontrollers to respond to sensor inputs, eighth graders using hot-glue guns, and high school students building chairs, building and programming robots, and using a laser to cut out pieces of wood for prototypes. As we look across our school, we're pretty excited by two things. First, we're pleased to see making (broadly defined as using your hands, heart, and mind to create or improve things) happening as part of our students' core classroom experiences. And second, we're thrilled that our students - poor, urban students of color - have access to making, especially because our educational system so often provides them with experiences filled with seat time and back-to-basics instruction. Lighthouse operates two high-performing, K-12 public schools in Oakland: our flagship campus, Lighthouse, and our brand new campus, Lodestar (to open in East Oakland in the fall of 2016). Our mission is to prepare a diverse, K-12 student population for college and the career of their choice by equipping each student with the skills, knowledge, and tools to become a self-motivated, competent, lifelong learner."

"Innovation is everyone's great desire. We worship innovation. Entrepreneurs embrace it. Careers are made on it. Companies compete over it. The challenge is we may not all be talking about the same thing. This makes the concept of what innovation actually is or not, hard to pin down. Are we talking about a technology, a business model, strategy or just a gadget. Maybe innovation is less about a "thing" like hardware but more of an idea--a mindset."

The Teachers' Guide to Global, Collaborative Teaching and Learning is a searchable database of global projects and resources to help educators foster global competence and build connection