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" The challenge for educators, especially directors of educational technology, is not to limit how our teachers teach, but to focus on the foundational skills and provide a clear and concrete formula for how different technological devices and applications will enhance these skills in order to give a learner the ability to create a product that will change the world."

"Last week, Thomas P. Campbell, Director and CEO of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, announced more than 400,000 high-resolution digital images of public domain works in the Museum's world-renowned collection may be downloaded directly from the Museum's website for non-commercial use-including in scholarly publications in any media-without permission from the Museum and without a fee. The number of available images will increase as new digital files are added on a regular basis."

"What if your extracurricular activities weren't just extra but a part of your academics too? New thinking on education intends to bring students' interests into the classroom. It's called Connected Learning and promotes the idea that students will excel in school if what they are learning is relevant to their lives, experiences, and passions. This plan is spelled out in a new report, by Mimi Ito, the research director of the Digital Media and Learning Hub at the University of California Irvine"

"As someone who has to wear two hats all the time: those of English teacher and Director of Digital Learning, I'm constantly challenging myself to make sure that what I recommend to other members of staff actually rings true and never is that more the case than in trying to ensure that there is genuine rigour in the work I'm doing with iPads.  Nothing is more important to me than ensuring that the use of the iPad creates a deep learning experience.  So here is a workflow that I think really works and hits the R of the SAMR model whilst also sticking with some of the tried and rested things we know work as teachers."

"The Irish Times has a good, short piece on The Moth, the not-for-profit organization dedicated to the art and craft of storytelling. The Moth started in George Dawes Green's living room in 1997, but soon the storytelling club founded by Green started hosting events in cafes and clubs throughout New York City. The name "The Moth" came from the idea that people are attracted to stories the way moths are attracted to a flame. From The Moth website: "Each show starts with a theme, and the storytellers explore it, often in unexpected ways. Since each story is true and every voice authentic, the shows dance between documentary and theater, creating a unique, intimate, and often enlightening experience for the audience." The storytellers are usually novice storytellers who have something interesting to share. Yet, The Moth directors work with the speakers before each show to help them find their stories and shape them. The focus is on meaning and quality but also on naturalness and authenticity, therefore, no notes or scripts are allowed. "

"Play is positive; gaming is good; and online engagement has begun supplying a generation with the love and feelings of connection that all humans crave. Some 7 billion hours a week are being poured into to this alternate world of engagement through online games. And 25 percent of Call of Duty players call in sick the day a new version the game comes out. These amazing and concerning facts paint a picture of the new world of gaming, said Jane McGonigal, who delivered the opening keynote address Wednesday at the FETC 2015 conference in Orlando, FL. The first person to earn a Ph.D. in the study of the effects of gaming, she is director of Games Research & Development at the Institute for the Future, a non-profit research group in Palo Alto, CA."

"Educators literally have a "world of knowledge and resources" at their fingertips, as one director of curriculum and instructional technology declared in response to THE Journal's national survey. "What better way to learn about the situation in Syria than tweeting #Syria and receiving a tweet from someone there?" But guiding your students in learning new concepts, gaining insights and building their skills requires you to be comfortable with the technologies that can make all of that happen. Where do you start? We asked your colleagues that same question, and they responded in multitudes. Their recommendations covered the alphabetic gamut, from adaptivity and apps to wikis and a willingness to learn. We compiled and consolidated 121 different results to develop this year's list of five must-have multimedia skills for 2015."

"recent Gallup poll of 170,000 Americans - 10,000 of whom were teachers - found that teaching is the second most satisfying profession (after medicine). Ironically, the same Gallup poll found that in contrast to their overall happiness with their jobs, teachers often rate last or close to the bottom for workplace engagement and happiness. "Of all the professions we studied in the U.S., teachers are the least likely to say that their opinions count and the least likely to say that their supervisor creates an open and sharing environment," said Brandon Busteed, executive director of Gallup Education, at the Next New World Conference. This is a troubling trend at a time when schools need to continue to attract high quality educators. "If the perception in our country is that teaching is not a great profession to go into, we certainly aren't going to be encouraging really talented young people to be thinking about the profession of teaching," Busteed said in an interview with Stephen Smith on the American RadioWorks podcast."

" "Even young kids have gotten very adept at Minecraft, so it can be quite intimidating for teachers," said Jason Schmidt, an instructional technologist for Bennington Public Schools who will teach the four-week MinecraftEdu MOOC, in a prepared statement. "If I can help get teachers over that hump, imagine how delighted students will be to have a learning environment tailored to their interests for a change." The other, Minecraft for Educators, "is a course for teachers who are wishing to gamify their learning experiences and deliver a unique pedagogy that will engage, enthuse and keep learners coming back for more," according to information released by the company. Both MOOCs are available through the Canvas Network. Minecraft for Educators will start January 26, 2015 and run through March 9. The company has also released a Minecraft app to allow students to submit assignments to the Canvas learning management system from within the game. Using the app, students can tag what they've made in the game for their teachers to visit, upload books they've written in game directly to the speed grader or use the game's circuitry tool to complete assignments that will be automatically graded. A video demonstration of the app is available at YouTube. Other MOOCs for teachers in the suite include: Digital Literacies 1; Digital Literacies 2; Five Habits of Highly Effective Teachers; Teachers without Borders: Educating Girls; and Tinker, Make and Learn. Among the other MOOC offerings in the new suite is a course designed specifically for parents, Parenting in the Digital Age, which aims to help them address issues such as cyberbullying, digital citizenship, exposure to inappropriate content, media literacy and screentime. Taught by Andrew Swickheimer, director of technology at Noblesville Schools, the self-paced course opens September 22. "Parental involvement in K-12 education has one of the biggest impacts on a child's commitment to learning," said Jared Stein, vice pres

"Tim, a Director of Instructional Technology from El Paso, Texas, gives a strong account of how iPad can be used as a tool for creation. He clearly details some of the concrete ways that the often-defended tablet can be used to produce videos, music, drawings, and works of art that move well beyond consumption. Kim, on the other hand, offers a unique perspective as an educator who has recently transitioned from supporting an iPad environment to using a Chromebook as his primary device. In his post, 3 Reasons Why Chromebook Beats iPad in 1:1 Programs, Kim gives the following three reasons for the superiority of the Chromebook: Chromebooks are for creating, and iPads are for consuming The App vs the Web The Google Ecosystem for Collaboration The most viable of these three reasons from Kim is the final one, the collaborative tools that are inherent in the Google ecosystem can be accessed seamlessly on a Chromebook. While iOS device access to Google tools continues to become less and less of an issue, schools that want to focus primarily on Google tools should look no further than Chromebooks. However, I would like to challenge Kim's first two points. As he notes in his discussion around his first point, the consumption versus creation debate with iPads and Chromebooks has been made countless times by those on both sides of this discussion."

"Recently, the NY Times ran an excellent article entitled: A Natural Fix for ADHD. In this piece, Dr. Richard Friedman, Professor of Clinical Psychiatry and Director of the Psychopharmacology Clinic at Weill Cornell Physicians, explores the neuroscience behind ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). In so doing, Friedman attempts to reframe our understanding of just what ADHD is, and how much more nuanced our approaches for treating it need to be."

"St. Stephen's Episcopal Day School hosted Miami Device, a conference held on their campus November 6 & 7, 2014. Felix Jacomino, the school's Director of Technology, managed to lead a team that pulled off an incredible learning event. The speakers, sessions, food, venue, and even the name tags surpassed all expectations. The opening keynote speaker was Kevin Honeycutt.  Kevin's wisdom, humor, expertise, kindness, charm, and wit set the stage for the two days. I had the privilege of being the closing keynote speaker. I had a great time encouraging educators to give students as much ownership over their devices and learning as possible. "

Unsolicited marketing related calls are a major nuisance and every telecom user has the right to have freedom from such calls. Dr Shefali S Dash, Deputy Director General, National Informatics Centre, Government of India IPS Sethi, Senior Technical Director, National…

Indian Bank wants to build 1,525 ultra small branches in rural areas across the country, as part of its focus on taking banking services to villages. Indian Bank Chairman and Managing Director T.M. Bashin speaking at Pattamangalam in Sivaganga district near Madurai recently said that the bank would be opening 1,525 ultra small branches comprising one clerk, one laptop and one rural development officer.

Indian Bank wants to build 1,525 ultra small branches in rural areas across the country, as part of its focus on taking banking services to villages. Indian Bank Chairman and Managing Director T.M. Bashin speaking at Pattamangalam in Sivaganga district near Madurai recently said that the bank would be opening 1,525 ultra small branches comprising one clerk, one laptop and one rural development officer.

"eople like maps. Give them a book with a map in the front, like Tolkien's Lord of the Rings series, and they will interrupt their regularly-scheduled reading happily to check out where the newly-mentioned river, mountain, or fjord is. It stands to reason, then, that people would enjoy making maps, too. And in this post on how to create effective homework (excuse me while I turn off the oxymoron alarms), Dan Bisaccio, former high school science teacher and now Director of Science Education at Brown University, discusses homework that might just be, if you'll excuse the audacity, fun."

"None of this would have been possible without the hard work and dedication of Director/Theatre Arts Teacher Scot Pankey & his classes with help of Camera crew- Bryan Urraca, Albert Robledo & Johan Cruz, Edited and produced by Jonathan Vega AKA #TrippyJ. "

"Teenagers really get a bad time,' says Sarah-Jayne Blakemore. 'It is amazing how it seems to be totally acceptable - even institutionalised - to parody and demonise them. We laugh at things that mock teenagers, but if you applied those sorts of jokes to any other sector of society, it just wouldn't be acceptable.' Blakemore is a professor of cognitive neuroscience and deputy director of the University College London Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience. She is sitting in her office behind Russell Square, the heartland of London academia, mounting a strong defence for every teenager in Britain who has slammed a bedroom door, smoked a cigarette, driven a car too fast and even - though she certainly doesn't condone this - given in to the peer pressure that surrounds drugs such as Ecstasy. Society's response to the teenage conviction that 'nobody understands' is often lack of patience. Teenagers, we think, are moody, self-absorbed, reckless, defiant creatures who reject our wisdom in favour of a path of personal sabotage. But the rallying cry from Blakemore - an increasingly powerful voice in the world of international neuroscience, who has given policy advice to the British government - is that teenagers are right. Beyond the world of neuroscientific research, for the most part society does not understand them."

"Creator's Studio is a 7th/8th grade elective course taught by John Umekubo, Director of Technology for St. Matthew's Parish School. This video explores the essential elements of this course, from electronics, to mechanical motion, and robotics. Students work through these three modules before taking on their own personal project. Hear reflections from the instructor and students as you view a number of sample student project"

" If student engagement equals deeper learning, then making school fun might just be the key to improved learning.  Imagine the looks on students' faces when you tell them that today, right there at school, their job is to become toymakers. Once they get over the shock, they'll be thrilled to create their own toys and channel their creative energy with an added bonus of fun. It may be the best head-fake technique ever for embedding the problem-solving and creative thinking skills that students will need for digital age jobs. Thanks to 3D printing and other maker tools, students can gain valuable STEM and technology skills while engaging their brains instantly and in new ways. And this will help them as they get older, according to Glen Bull, co-director of the Center for Technology & Teacher Education at the University of Virginia."

"Newark, Del. It's no secret that American workplaces are becoming more reliant on technology. But what may surprise the country's K-12 educators and policymakers is how work at nearly every rung of the employment ladder is becoming more digitized. Often, the skills needed to succeed have less to do with computer programming than what experts call "digital literacy"-the ability to interpret, create, and strategically use digital information. "Everyone's job is changing," said Mark Muro, a senior fellow and policy director at the Brookings Institution, a think tank. "The ability to read and then conduct first-order analysis of digital information is highly valued in almost all work environments." To better understand the central role of digital literacy in the workplace, Education Week took a deep look at four occupations in the Christiana Care Health System. It's the largest private employer in Delaware, with 11,600 employees and an expected 1,500 new hires this year."