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"Regardless of whether you think every infant needs an iPad, I think we can all agree that technology has changed education for the better. Today's learners now enjoy easier, more efficient access to information; opportunities for extended and mobile learning; the ability to give and receive immediate feedback; and greater motivation to learn and engage. We now have programs and platforms that can transform learners into globally active citizens, opening up countless avenues for communication and impact. Thousands of educational apps have been designed to enhance interest and participation. Course management systems and learning analytics have streamlined the education process and allowed for quality online delivery. But if we had to pick the top ten, most influential ways technology has transformed education, what would the list look like? The following things have been identified by educational researchers and teachers alike as the most powerful uses of technology for learning. Take a look. 1. Critical Thinking In Meaningful Learning With Technology, David H. Jonassen and his co-authors argue that students do not learn from teachers or from technologies. Rather, students learn from thinking-thinking about what they are doing or what they did, thinking about what they believe, thinking about what others have done and believe, thinking about the thinking processes they use-just thinking and reasoning. Thinking mediates learning. Learning results from thinking. So what kinds of thinking are fostered when learning with technologies? Analogical If you distill cognitive psychology into a single principle, it would be to use analogies to convey and understand new ideas. That is, understanding a new idea is best accomplished by comparing and contrasting it to an idea that is already understood. In an analogy, the properties or attributes of one idea (the analogue) are mapped or transferred to another (the source or target). Single analogies are also known as sy

"As the world continues to change, technology continues to change as well. Not only is it important for us as educators to teach our students how to use technology, but it is even more important for us to use it in a way that is seamlessly integrated so our students can learn the content, material, and skills that they need to learn. This is Education Technology Integration. "

"To some people, Finland isn't a whole lot more than a chilly, northern country boasting a population of around 5 million people. Whether you've been to Finland or not, you probably haven't had the chance to take an up-close and personal look at one of Finland's greatest accomplishments to date - its high-achieving education system. Students in Finland have, over the past several years, risen to the top of the academic food-chain, and they've become some of the top scholarly performers in the world. Compared to many other developed nations, including the US and Canada, Finland's high school graduation rates have continued to grow steadily and impressively. Furthermore, a huge percentage of students continue on to earn college degrees, and students at all levels perform exceedingly well on standardized tests."

"The journey of building and maintaining a makerspace in our school is never-ending. Less than one year ago, we opened the doors of our Learning Lab Makerspace to our students, who have since experienced creating, tinkering and play. While still in its infancy, our Learning Lab has gone through a major transformation into the makerspace and yet has still continued to change based on our students' interests and needs. We have built the maker mindset from the ground up in our school, with teachers finding new ways to use the space to empower students to solve problems and with students finding their creative side as they tinker and explore. The space has grown in materials and ideas and even our parents are intrigued by what happens in there, bringing donations of supplies so that our students can continue to make. Even though our makerspace has seen its changes, there are materials that have become staples. Some of our must-haves are consumables, where students create ideas and projects in the art station. Other must-haves are not consumables, but are always in use. Here is our top ten list of elementary makerspace must-have materials."

"Engaging students with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) education is more important today than ever before. There's a large gap in today's job market between the skills demanded by growing fields and the amount of potential workers that possess those skills. All of us at STEM Village aim to empower all youth to take a passion for STEM subjects and to continue building their skills for the future job market. However, we also recognize the growing gap between women and girls who choose to take on a STEM career. Read more about why girls need STEM and why STEM needs girls in this article by Today's Parents. Our team aims to find the best STEM resources available so we can bring them to the Technology, Math, Science, and Discovery sections of our STEM Village app. We celebrated International Women's Day this week and are continuing to celebrate the power of women and girls for Women's History month, by sharing our favourite Women in STEM education resources on social media. Here's a list of our top 10 picks to empower girls in STEM!"

"So many of us are trying to create passionate reading environments, we are doing all the things the experts tell us to do, and yet, something just isn't clicking. Some kids are reading sure, but they would probably be reading any way, others though, not so much. Our passionate reading environments are just not working for all of our kids. When I moved from 5th to 7th I knew I would be up against a challenge, after all, I had seen the slow decline of reading in my 5th graders and was pretty sure it would continue as they got older. And I was right, by 7th graders some of my students are not just disliking books, some really hate reading. And they are vocal about it! So what have I done to continue to create passionate reading environments? Here are a few ideas…"

"The fact that millions of Americans are building airplanes in their garage, meeting at makerspaces to work with strangers on customized robots, and collaboratively solving society's problems at hackathons, is a beautiful thing. To its advocates and participants, the Maker Movement resonates with all of those characteristics that we believe makes America great: independence and ingenuity, creativity and resourcefulness. But as impressive as today's tools are, they're not accessible to many Americans simply because of their costs and high technological barrier to entry. Though the price of 3-D printers has come down considerably and continues to drop, the tool still costs several hundred to thousands of dollars to buy. And mastering even the simplest computer-aided modeling tools requires a bit of dedicated study and technical savvy. This begs the question: How can we continue to bring this nascent revolution to everyone who is interested?"

Defining mulit--tasking as continuous partial attention

"I'm on a continuing quest to discover more effective and efficient ways to share audio recordings online, and the Cinch app for iOS (iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch) continues to be one of my favorites"

"Since this year's WWDC keynote ended, the focus of any analysis on iOS 8 has been its features - things like Continuity, Extensions, and iCloud Drive. This is, of course, expected: iOS is the operating system that drives Apple's most important (and most profitable) products, so it's natural that the limelight be shone on the new features for the mass market. As I've written, however, the Accessibility features that Apple includes in iOS are nonetheless just as important and innovative as the A-list features that Craig Federighi demoed on stage at Moscone. Indeed, Apple is to be lauded for their year-over-year commitment to improving iOS's Accessibility feature set, and they continue that trend with iOS 8. Here, I run down what's new in Accessibility in iOS 8, and explain briefly how each feature works."

"I am back on my soapbox… …because I continue to see great things happening in classrooms, but get blank stares, when I ask, if these things are being shared beyond the school building. …because I watch as administrators feel the need to "protect" their faculty from "one more thing to do". …because I continue to hear fear of transparency, competition, privacy and technology skills and tech phobia.  Setting up my soapbox to raise awareness of the "moral imperative of sharing" for teachers (Dean Shareski) goes back to his keynote in 2010 at the K-12 Online Conference. Since then I have stepped on that soapbox via my blog and at conferences advocating for the IMPORTANCE and NECESSITY of sharing."

"While NASA is well known for its cutting edge space exploration and technology, the organization actually does an amazing job sharing their inspiring advances with educators and students through a huge number of STEM focused mobile apps and websites. Their flagship app, the 'NASA App' continues to be one of the most popular government apps and while it has been around for a few years now, it continues to grow in popularity with an ever expanding media catalogue and regular feature updates."

"Students and teachers alike continue to look for cool design tools to give any project that extra visual punch, and we continue to find great ones all over the Web. This post features 7 fairly unique free online creative image maker tools that are easy to learn and lots of fun to experiment with. Make things like motivational posters, memes, Keep Calm posters, Webcam pics, and so much more with these great image generators. Have fun trying them out and having students add creative flair to lesson projects of every kind."

"I have always had a love for hands on learning and play. I have seen this type of learning continue to get stifled in schools with all the pressures mounting on schools, teachers, and students. As stress, fatigue, anxiety, and burnout continue to increase for both students and adults I see a bigger need to help support education with infusing more play and wonder into the classroom. I have decided to do something about it. After leading several PD sessions and workshops using LEGO and other materials as a way to bring excitement to learning I realize I can do more. Starting the week of April 15th I will begin a 6 week course on Purposeful Play using only LEGO. "

"When 11-year-old blogger Malala Yousafzai began detailing her experiences in the Swat Valley of Pakistan for the BBC, she had no idea what momentous changes were coming in her life. Her father, Ziauddin, a school founder and dedicated teacher, was outspoken in his belief that girls, including his beloved daughter, had a right to an education. As they continued to speak out against restrictions imposed by extremists, Ziauddin received constant death threats, so many that he began to sleep in different places. But it was Malala who was almost killed, shot in the head by a gunman on her way home from school. Her survival and recovery have been little short of miraculous. Instead of being cowed by this horrific attack, Malala began to use the international attention she attracted to advocate for the cause of girls' education worldwide. Through her speeches, her autobiography I Am Malala, the work of her fund, and her travels to places where girls' education is in crisis, she has continued to focus on the effort to give all girls safe schools, qualified teachers, and the materials they need to learn. The film He Named Me Malala both celebrates her dedication to this cause and gives the viewer insight into her motivation. It begins with an animated portrayal of the teenage folk hero for whom Malala was named, Malalai of Maiwand, whose fearlessness and love of country turned the tide of battle for Afghan fighters. From those opening scenes, live action and animation tell the story of Malala's life before and after the attack. We see her at various times of her life: severely wounded in the hospital, teasing her brothers in her new home in England, giving a speech to the United Nations, teaching a class in Kenya, and more. Her efforts are ongoing and they are realized through her organization, the Malala Fund, which "empowers girls through quality secondary education to achieve their potential and inspire positive change in their communities.""

"Chances are if you're a teacher that you've considered how to continue to engage students once classes are over for the day, or even the year. Above all, beyond our daily interactions with learners, we'll always want their curiosity to continue and this is a commendable mindset. So what about a selection of apps that can make this happen? Thankfully, Dave Saltmarsh from eSchool News has recently come up with a terrific list of apps that are designed to engage students during "rainy days, road trips or any time in between." Check out the links he has compiled below."

"Before the advent of the uber-popular show Mythbusters or the push for more STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) in schools, parents and their kids were doing at-home science experiments. Now, the trend continues to blossom, although many of the experiments have remained somewhat the same…and always awesomely exciting! If you're a parent and you want to do something with your kid that isn't related to cleaning the toilets or forging through homework, check out these 20 great science projects that you can complete in the confines of your humble abode. Most of them use around-the-home items that you probably have on hand, although some will require a little bit of shopping ahead of time. To help you decide which are best for your children's needs, the 20 have been divided into projects for younger students and projects for older ones."

"I've compiled some of my best Makerspace resources onto this page.  I've been researching this topic extensively, and I will continue to add resources as I discover them."

Continuous Professional Development (CPD)

A Professional Learning Community (PLC) is defined as a school in which the professionals (administrators and teachers) continuously seek and share learning to increase their effectiveness for students, and act on what they learn (Hord, 1997). Hord adds that schools organized as PLCs are characterized by five dimensions: shared and supportive leadership, shared values and vision, collective learning and application of learning, supportive conditions, and shared personal practice. Hord asserts that by nurturing and developing each of these five dimensions, a school staff can evolve into a learning community.