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"What with recent headlines about solar flares, coronal mass ejections, geomagnetic storms, and spectacular auroral displays, many people have been wondering what the heck is going on with the Sun. 3D Sun, a free app for iPhone and iPad, provides answers in semi-regular updates on the state of the Sun, replete with dazzling images and/or videos."

"You've seen Stephen Spielberg's film, Minority Report, right? Tom Cruise's character stands in front of virtual screens, puts on a pair of gloves, and manipulates the data and the memories without touching a thing. Well, the super brains at MIT's media lab have taken the first step toward that reality, using Apple's magical device as a display screen and a special glove/attachment combo to interact with it."

"The iPad is a device that inherently inspires creativity. With its large, yet handheld screen and new 3.1 million pixel retina display that brilliantly showcases colors, crisp fonts, and detailed videos, it's a dream for anyone obtaining an education. From elementary school children, to students studying for their Masters degree its no wonder that the iPad has become a key tool in many classrooms across multiple educational echelons."

"The art of animation - a series of related images that depict movement - is arguably several thousand years old. The use of equipment that could display animated images in rapid succession to create the illusion of motion is a more modern phenomenon that gained wide popularity with the development of motion pictures. Cartoons and animated movies from the studios of companies such as Disney, Warner Brothers, Nickelodeon and others have had a tremendous impact on modern culture. Production of an animated movie requires skilled artists, expensive equipment and an investment of countless hours of labor. No longer. Mobile devices with built-in cameras such as the iPad enable budding animators to use a variety of easy to use animation apps to capture and stitch together photos of characters and objects into seamless, fluent animated movies. Further, the process of designing, scripting and staging animations has tremendous educational potential. Animation can be a wonderful mix of art, science, collaboration and problem solving."

"DisplayNote is a software and app solution that gives a way of tying all these elements together. Simply load the software onto your computer (Mac or PC). When you open it up, it will work as an overlay to the computer desktop and give you a bank of interactive tools that you can use from your computer or any interactive display. "

"Before we dig in, let's start with a quick multiple-choice quiz: Font : Text :: A. Hat : Head B. Coffee : Tea C. Voice : Speech The answer is C. The font you choose to display text is every bit as important as the voice you use to speak if you want a reader to not only understand what they are reading, but also remember it as well. The primary purpose of type is not really to be readable, but to convey information that is to be remembered. Surprisingly, readability might not always lead to the best information retention. "

"A great management tip for school or class sets of iPads, tablets, and iPods is to number each device. Setting the lock screen wallpaper to an image with each device's number will make it easy to identify devices. Just press the home or power button and the lock screen instantly lights up and displays the number. "

"One of the killer additions to the Mail app in iOS 7 are Smart Mailboxes, which help organize all sent messages, messages with attachments, and more. The VIP mailbox is displayed by default, but you'll want to tap on the Edit button on the top-right corner of the Mail app to reveal the other Smart Mailboxes."

"Last fall I wrote an ABC/25 Foundation grant through my district for the supplies for Green Screen Stop-Motion Animation Stations. My ideas for what to purchase evolved a bit with more research to include green display board from BLICK and iPad stands from Anker. We will have two stages of production. "

"If you have only one iPad, use Apple's VGA adapter ($29) to connect your iPad to a smartboard. No smartboard? Grab an LCD projector, VGA adapter, and speakers, if you wish, for your iPad, then check out the simple how-to video below. If you have just one smartphone, pop your phone under a document camera. You can also use an adapter to project the smartphone; however, not all apps will function properly. (Unless a class is using Apple's presentation software, Keynote, I use a document camera to display my smartphone.) Use your single iPad or smartphone to blast content onto the big screen and let kids work together for an engaging mini-lesson. Then have students use the single device when working in small groups, as a reward, or during center time."

"It's now possible to display your iPad to your class by connecting it directly to your Mac using the lightning-USB cable (the same one you use to charge your iPad).  Once your iPad is connected to your Mac, launch QuickTime Player (in your Applications folder). From the File menu Choose "New Movie Recording".  This will open a movie window and show your web cam.  If you hover your mouse over the window you will see a floating recording palette.  Next to the record button, there is a small white V icon.  Clicking that will let you select your iPad as the camera source!  Of course you can record it if you want to - but you don't have to - you can just use it to show your screen to the class."

"But it will be hard to reap any of these benefits if your images aren't displaying correctly. So follow our guide below to avoid the common mistakes that many people run into when trying to format images for their websites."

"One of the best ways for frustrated parents, students and teachers to convince school leaders that it's time for a reboot is with amazing student work. An unconventional learning community of "makers" - people who like to figure out and fix problems with their hands - stands ready to demonstrate a hands-on learning style in which students engage problems that matter to them, taking agency and displaying creativity along the way. The Maker Movement is slowly infiltrating schools across the country with the help of dedicated educators and inspirational students proving with their creations that they can do incredible things when given a chance."

"Stop Motion was one of the original video creation techniques. By stringing together a series of single images and displaying them quickly in order, film was born. Now on iPad, Stop Motion can be used as a technique for capturing learning as it happens, making drawings, models, science projects, or counting exercises come alive. Consider the power of creating a digital flipbook that could later be viewed as a video. Introduction to KomaKoma KomaKoma is a FREE Stop Motion iPad App that can compile together a series of photos taken in the app and then export them to the Camera Roll as a video. With a simple user interface consisting of only a few buttons, KomaKoma is very intuitive. The app launches the camera automatically (first time app users will have to allow the Camera access). A big red record button captures each image in sequence, and a big green play button plays the images back as a video. The only other 2 editing buttons are a blue "X" to delete the last image taken, and a yellow arrow for saving the video to the app's Gallery. "

"Filmmakers are using virtual reality to make the problems of the developing world seem more ... real. But how can you see their work? You could buy a headset, but you might end up in virtual debt. Prices range from $200 to $500 for devices from big players like Oculus Rift, Sony and Samsung. And forking over that much cash is a problem since there's not a lot of content yet. MindMaze Software Engineer Nicolas Bourdaud demonstrates a virtual reality system at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco on Tuesday. All Tech Considered Developers Continue Push To Make Virtual Reality Mainstream An attendee at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles plays Sony's Project Morpheus London Heist video game with a virtual reality headset and Move controllers. All Tech Considered Gaming Industry Pushes Virtual Reality, But Content Lags "You're in a store ... and here's all the head-mounted displays and then it costs $200 or $300. Why would you ever buy it when you don't know why you're buying it? You wouldn't," Tony Christopher, CEO of Landmark Entertainment Group, told NPR last month. But there are inexpensive options that require only your smartphone and some cardboard. Google Cardboard, a project of the tech giant, offers instructions and templates to build your own cardboard virtual reality headset. Grab a pair of scissors, X-Acto knife and some glue. Then find some cardboard at home, print out the templates, trace and cut out the different pieces and assemble your goggles. The instructions can get confusing, so our multimedia editor Ben de la Cruz suggests following a how-to video like this one from the tech site, CNET."

"Last summer the folks at Canva were kind enough to create a great infographic for me based on a set of search tips that I sent to them. The infographic makes a great poster to display in your classroom, but it is a little light on the details of how and why to use some of the search strategies. The PDF embedded below provides more detail on the search strategies that I frequently share with teachers and students."