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"With the popularity of flipped classrooms showing no sign of waning, a new crop of web tools for teachers are emerging to help support instruction. In this post, I take a look at three ways that teachers can add questions to a YouTube video for their students to answer when watching a video at home or on their own."

"There is a NEED and URGENCY of updating curriculum and instructional repertoire to give the critical literacies of our century justice. Upgrading and amplifying traditionally taught activities, lessons, units or entire classroom learning environments takes time and practice. Just as in any sport, if you want to get better at it, you have to put in the time and practice. The same holds true with upgrading and amplifying. Most educators are "not in shape" and not in the routine of upgrading their curriculum to embed emerging critical literacies and amplifying their own and their students' work."

"Getting students engaged is not an easy task particularly in an age that is full of all kinds of distractions. Some argue that some of the habits that students have developed as a result of their heavy use of emerging technologies and social media have negatively impacted their capacities to concentrate and focus for longer stretches of time. Multitasking in particular is blamed for this and I personally side with the camp that views multitasking as a distractor to productivity and not a positive attribute."

"In the middle of October, we invited educators to tell us about the "apps, games, and websites that are helping to tranform their classrooms this year." We asked that you submit your responses in the form of Field Notes and we received more than 700 submissions! 43 products emerged with several votes and strong, detailed Field Notes to explain just how they are being used effectively at school. So here is our (albeit unscientific) list of apps, games, and websites transforming classrooms this Fall. "

"Reading and writing is a core skill that pervades all other school subjects. With the focus we see on STEM-related products, it is good to see so many emerging products with their sights on literacy too. Here are a handful of notable tools for literacy education."

"Both the Internet and the way young people use technology are constantly changing, but Internet safety messages change very slowly if at all. A few years ago, some of us in the Net safety community started talking about how to adjust our messaging for the much more interactive "Web 2.0." And we did so, based on the latest research as it emerged. But even those messages are starting to get a bit stale…. Now it's time for Online Safety 3.0."

"We are at the juncture of a monumental period in the history of education where mobile technologies are driving learning.With the growing use of hand-held mobile devices and broad band Internet connection,  mobile learning has become ubiquitous practice. With raise of on-the-go learning, there emerged a range of promising learning trends that address different learning and instructional needs. This beautiful visual from Original Learning provides a succinct overview of some of the most popular mobile learning trends to watch out for in this year and beyond. Some of which include:"

"With summer right around the corner, it is time to relax, decompress, and then start thinking about next year (when you're ready, of course J). Once ready, we here at App Ed Review encourage you to start thinking about ways to incorporate art into your instruction! Whether you're an English, social studies, P.E., or math teacher (or another subject area too!), art can be used to expand student learning and allow them to demonstrate their learning. We hope the apps below provide you with some ideas."

"Are you already familiar with Mystery Number Skype? If you are, read on. If you're not, my six and seven year olds would be happy to tell you how to play it. I love the way Mystery Number Skype helps students to think about numbers. Every time we play, the game changes and a new strategy and order of questions emerges that can help the children narrow down the options for the number the other class is thinking of. It's such a great tool for me to see their thinking and for them to try various number strategies."

"Recently, I presented an online webinar with education colleagues from different parts of the U.S. The webinar, Social Media Savvy for Educators, was well received. Our purpose in sharing was to: Support educators who were new to using social media Support them to seek out a few resources Support them to launch into those spaces In this webinar, we shared ways to tap into the power of social media to increase professional effectiveness, student engagement and parent participation. K-12 educators and leaders attended and participated to learn about integrating Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, blogs, Google Hangout and more into their everyday work. An interesting issue emerged as we stepped through the webinar -- we observed that many participants did not know how to "get started" using social media tools. "

"The 21st century is challenging old notions of learning spaces. The idea that students must be seated at desks working in rows is quickly becoming archaic. Technology and collaborative work environments are changing the design of learning spaces. Experts hope that the emerging paradigm will translate into improved learning spaces and influence future architectural design."

"Green screen is a cinematographic technique that allows video editors to add a variety of visual effects to their videos. These effects include : adding virtual backgrounds, superimposing subjects over animated backdrops, placing a subject on another shot and many more. Green screen technology has been widely used in weather and movie industry. But now with the emergence of apps such as the ones below, everyone can use this technology to create engaging clips and presentations. As Do Ink explained " Green screen technology is used in the movies to make it look like the actors have landed on an alien planet, and it's used on TV to make it look like your local news announcer is standing in front of an animated weather map. The green screen effect works by combining images from multiple sources into a single video. These images can come from photos or videos in your camera roll, or from the live video camera. ""

"This is the third post in a series of posts covering some very good guides to help teachers make the best of emerging technologies in education. After writing about technology tips and flipped classroom, this post presents some of our favourite reads for teachers looking for ways to better use iPad in their instruction. We invite you to check them out and as always share with us your feedback. Enjoy."

"If you build it, will they come? That is the question many schools have about finding room on campus for a "makerspace." The just-released 6th annual New Media Consortium Horizon Report K-12 Edition listed makerspaces as an emerging technology in the year-or-less adoption timeframe. "Makerspaces are increasingly being looked to as a method for engaging learners in creative, higher-order problem-solving through hands-on design, construction, and iteration," the report noted. That sounds great, but what is the definition of a makerspace, and how do you launch one? As Dale Dougherty, one of the founders of the maker movement, has said, a makerspace might share aspects of shop class, an art studio, science labs and home economics. It could focus on electronics, robotics, woodworking, sewing, laser cutting, programming or any combination of those."

"I should teach my students how to learn about using technology rather than simply having them learn content via technology."

"Since 2007, a diverse group of Pittsburgh's educators, funders, academics, and citizens-known as the Remake Learning Network-has emerged to exchange ideas and implement strategies to enhance the region's learning ecosystem. These efforts have provided the region's children and youth with novel, engaging, and relevant learning opportunities that help them thrive in school, college, and the workforce. Indeed, what began with small, informal discussions has blossomed into a full-fledged movement that is yielding notable results and earning national recognition. In the spirit of open innovation, the Network is building the Remake Learning Playbook, a field guide full of ideas and resources for supporting learning innovation networks. Filled with practical and actionable information to help other communities build on the Pittsburgh model for learning innovation."

"The Youth Makerspace Playbook is a resource providing context and support around planning spaces for youth to make. It offers practical suggestions on finding spaces to make, outfitting spaces with tools and materials, exploring the possible educational approaches within spaces, and sustaining spaces in the long-term. Accompanying the Youth Makerspace Playbook is "Makerspaces: Highlights of Select Literature," a selection of the latest thinking emerging from the growth of makerspaces and their developing roles in education and communities. "

"Since its release awhile ago, Google Classroom has been such a hit in the EdTech world with millions of teachers already incorporating it in their daily instruction.With this widespread use of Google Classroom, Google rolled out a host of important updates to improve the functionality of Classroom and to respond to the emerging needs of educators."