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Google Reader is shutting down in two days and it is therefore important that you migrate your existing RSS feed subscriptions elsewhere. There are quite a few Reader alternatives to choose from though I have finally picked Feedly as the new home for my beloved feeds.

The final round of government funding is currently being distributed to schools all around Australia. So far over 967,000 computers have been bought, infrastructure built and (most) teachers up-skilled to benefit from the acquisition. But as the funds come to an end, many school principals are wondering if the process has been beneficial, and how can they continue to support and progress the Digital Education Revolution?

Twitter has finally introduced two-factor authentication.

"I have been slowly working through a number of different tools and processes to nail down a productivity workflow on my iPad that would actually make me more productive, organized and wouldn't add any additional steps.  I think I have finally found the solution and it is working perfectly.  To make the process even more worthwhile, the entire workflow process transfers and syncs seamlessly with my MacBook which is a basic requirement of any workflow process."

"This little digital creature called Hashtag has been revolutionizing the way people network, communicate and share on social media websites. It first started on Twitter around the year 2009 then Google Plus adopted it in 2012 before Facebook officially integrated it in June 2013. However, what is mysteriously unknown about this #poundsign is that its origin dates back to the 12th century when the #symbol first appeared in the musical realm. Since then, hashtags have been used in different contexts and for different purposes till they finally landed in the social media landscape some few years ago. The visual below provides a very good visual illustration of the chronological development of the sign #hashtag."

If you can't watch the video on Facebook you can see it on YouTube - "If you've ever seen the movie The King's Speech, you remember the incredible feeling at the end when the King finally overcame the debilitating speech impediment he suffered from since he was a boy. Musharaf Asghar is no King, he is just a young man who has suffered his entire life, like the king, with a terrible stutter. In this heartwarming video, Mushy's teacher uses the same method as in the movie - using music to overcome anxiety - to help Mushy speak. For this man, even getting a few words out felt impossible, but once he started getting the hang of it, there was no stopping him."

"Our Maker Club has transitioned from making cardboard games to making movies, and one of the apps the students explored last week was Goldieblox and the Movie Machine.  They quickly figured out what they needed to do to create their own short animations, and they were too busy having fun to ask for help from me.  The club is still testing out different options for movie creation, so we haven't worked our way up to making final products, but I think this app will definitely be a contender for most popular movie-making tool (along with the Lego Movie Maker app)."

"Paste your text into Analyze My Writing and it will generate a ton of information about your writing. Analyze My Writing will give you a break-down of the readability of your writing on five indices. The analysis will include listings of the most common words and most common word pairs in your writing. A listing of how frequently you use punctuation and punctuation types is included in the analysis provided by Analyze My Writing. Finally, a word cloud is included at the end of the analysis of your writing. "

"It's been a heady first month in Northfield Community Middle School's Technology, Engineering, and Design program. Kids are raving, parents are beaming, and it was a great start. But . . . what assumptions have we made that were valid? Or not? What's going well? What could be better? What adjustments are we making now that "Design Experience Zero" in Digital Shop has wrapped up, and our gamified learning management system, Black Mesa, is in full swing? Finally, what's ahead for the program longer-term? Back when our fantastic new learning space was still all gleaming and ready for kids to experience, compliments started rolling in, but I reminded people that creating the space and even building our LMS had been the easy part. The hard part would be (and is!) creating authentic learning experiences that purposefully engage the kids in mindful exploration (the Manifesto, remember?). Our goal: make the kids "life ready" by challenging them to take charge of their own learning -- something that school had never really asked them to do."

"Apple may never give us a touchscreen MacBook, but, for now, we have the next best thing: The iPad Pro and its companion Smart Keyboard. This once-fabled behemoth of a tablet is now real and, to be frank, rather remarkable. At 12.9 inches, its screen is as large as two iPad Air 2 screens side-by-side (portrait-style, of course), and with a new A9X chip, it has power to burn and seems up to virtually any task. It's the iPad that finally makes sense of Apple's dual-paned, multi-tasking metaphor the company unveiled with iOS 9. To call it simply "the next iPad," however, is misleading. When paired with the Smart Keyboard and Apple Pencil, the iPad Pro's tablet personality recedes, and a workhorse steps forward."

"Seedling Comic Studio is an iPad app for making comic books.  By combining photographs with backgrounds and stickers, students can tell their own stories.  Graphic novels and comic books are fantastic ways to get students excited about reading.  If you're looking to keep students interested in the writing process, a comic book can be a great final project for a narrative, opinion, or informational piece of writing."

"It is a challenge to seize children's attention and not to let it go. Some teachers experience great difficulties in keeping students engaged and involved in the educational process due to objective reasons. Luckily, there exist some tricks to help resourceful teachers, one of them being visual aids. Looking at bright and colorful images, students are more likely to digest the material without boredom and remember it afterwards. But why are visual aids so effective and how to create them? First of all, visual aids are helpful, because they show the data visually. Some facts, connections and outcomes are much easier to understand when they are represented as a picture. For example, some statistics, shown as a diagram will be much more winning than its detailed descriptions in words. Then, as visual images have the sense of modernity, they easily grab children's attention for some time. Thus, they are useful for highlighting some essential points and setting true accents. And finally, visual aids and pictures boost children's creativity. By looking at something beautiful and challenging, by perceiving the right way of data organization, students can get inspired and come up with new and outstanding ideas. "

"3D printing has been around for a long time, but only recently has it become available to the general public. My friends and family still think of a 3D printer as some sort of miracle device that can make whatever you want at the push of a button. Of course, we as creators know that it takes a lot of work to go from an initial idea to a final 3D printed product. There was a period of time where everyone was telling me I HAD to make prosthetic hands because I own this futuristic 3D printer and I had a social responsibility to use it for the forces of good.  I think of 3d printers like any other tool such as a table saw or lathe. Sure you can make just about anything, but what do you want to make? I've always loved the aesthetic of boy's action toys so I couldn't resist the opportunity to make my own action figures."

"Ms. Kelly's Kindergarten class has been hard at work on an animal research project that is unlike any other I've been a part of.  For the culmination of the project, students recorded an interview of an animal in its habitat using our green screen and the Do Ink app.  There were many layers to the process that students went through the create their final product. The class has been to the library throughout the project to initiate various pieces and then moved forward with the project work in class."

"As finals approached this year, I had a desire to do something different. In the past I've had students write a timed five-paragraph argument essay about whether Montag, from Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, is a conformist or nonconformist. My students had already written four essays this year, so I decided to ditch the essay. Instead, I had them select a metaphor from the novel and asked them to bring it to life creating a 3D visual metaphor."

"Our approach, called Coding By Design, begins with solving real problems for real people. We start with a design thinking approach to creating an app, then proceed to a prototype, multiple iterations based on real feedback, and finally a top-down approach to solving the coding problems and puzzles inherent in app development."

"A few weeks ago I shared some strategies to prepare for the Hour of Code with those who wanted to get ahead of the game and introduce kids at your local school to the power of programming. Well, the week we've been waiting for is finally here! Code.org's annual initiative Hour of Code is a worldwide event in which newbies can get their first taste of programming by spending an hour doing one of numerous coding activities. So whether you've prepared for a blow-out series of school-wide introductions or you just want to join in the Hour of Code spirit with some playful coding at home, read on to find the perfect activity."

"Chrome browser is packed full of amazing features that can make your browsing experience way more easier and productive. In today's post we have picked out five of what we think are must-know Chrome tips for teachers. Using these tips will enable you to save, sync and access your Chrome data and bookmarks across different devices, easily access and manage your installed apps, use shortcuts to perform quick tasks on Chrome, restore closed tabs and windows, and finally browse the web privately using incognito mode."

"I want people to realize that the concept of coding happens all the time in many classrooms. Kids tinker, make, solve problems, collaborate and challenge each other all the time. I'd argue that most teachers already do most of this list, without the awareness. The Hour of Code movement is great because it raises awareness but does little from the aforementioned list. HOC is a superb entry point but not a destination. Coding isn't the only way to demonstrate these skills - and technology isn't even required. I've been pushing coding for close to a decade now and am pleased to see it finally get some traction (and there were many before me). Now it is time for a next step. As such, I am proposing a new hashtag #CTMindset (Computational Thinking Mindset) to remind us how people think, computers think and technology works. If we can combine the three, maybe there is some hope."