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"Despite the fact that it's currently the year 2013, and that our collective EdTech excitement is growing every single day, there's still one aspect of modern technology and the Internet that is too often ignored in our classrooms. You know what I'm talking about: the "W" word. Wikipedia."

"Passing out iPads to students on the first day of school was like celebrating Christmas (or in this case Hanukkah) with thirty antsy kids sitting around the tree, attempting to hide their impatience. Once the iPads had been handed out, students were instantly excited, engaged and enchanted with the new learning device in their hands. At first, everyone was confused about where to find work, where to save and store their products - and which app to use for what purpose. As with every pilot, these issues worked themselves out and soon classes were running pretty smoothly. Once they all learned what a "hard reset" was we were on our way. After an exciting year chalked full of learning lessons and changes in our learning landscape here are my takeaways: "

"PAT is a free, open source, collection of maps developed by Ian Macky. The collection includes maps of every country in the world. Regional maps were recently added to the collection. You can download any and all of these detailed maps for free. "

"As mobile technology continues to permeate every facet of society, the mantra of today's youth seems to be "Make it Mobile!" With this influx of technology it will be interesting to see how the classroom looks 5, 10, 15 years down the road. Do you have any predictions?"

"Many schools will ask students to bring their own smartphones, tablets and laptops from home as a federal government program which gave every student in years 9 to 12 access to a computer expires at the end of this month."

"A short introductory screencast on how to cut, copy and paste on your iPad. This technique works in every app using the keyboard."

"If orange is the new black, podcasting is the new oral report. And now that teachers have easy access to tools like Garage Band and iPods that make recording a breeze, podcasting is quickly becoming the latest creative mode of learning and presenting in schools. Here are ten ideas to try in your classroom today."

"TWA is happy to release our list of 12 BEST Children's Educational Apps of 2012! Every app featured in this review has been RELEASED in 2012, updates excluded. We wish this list had 12 categories so we could cover all of the wonderful new educational additions to the app store. Since that is not feasible we are limiting this list to learning games only. We will post a list of the 12 Best Book Apps of 2012 soon, as well as a list of the top 12 Educational App Developers!"

"Education must move with the times. What can be done to reach a technology-savvy generation that relies on media every free second of their time? BYOD-Bring Your Own Device, a trend that is catching on quickly. Bring Your Own Device has transformed the classroom by creating new opportunities for learning. Studies find that Generation Y is highly reliant on wireless devices and phones. And rather than fight it, educators can use this to their advantage."

"At last week's iPad site visit, a student on the panel was describing her favorite iLesson: "It was in science. It is an interactive periodic table (app). We were learning about the elements. You click on an element and it gives you the history, who made it, how you use it, what it is used for. Another cool feature is you can make them. You can keep on adding neutrons, electrons, and protons as much as you like and every time you click on the plus or minus, it tells you what element you just made. The results were really amazing. We had more interest in the periodic table than we ever had before mainly because it was fun, it was interesting, we actually got to play around with it and see what we could make with it instead of just giving us a piece of paper and telling us 'research these'.""

"How did I address this tragedy in class? I hugged every last child in my classroom as he/she left for the weekend and told them that they matter, that I love them, and that they make this world better by being in it. They left smiling, believing, and feeling validated. #partofthesolution Jolie Barker- Passionate Educator"