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"There's no doubt the Internet opens up an enormous, ever-expanding world of resources when it comes to gathering information. But if well-founded, quality research is what you're after, the Internet is hit or miss. Don't get us wrong -- a good ol' Internet search is great to use as a guide when you're starting to research a topic. When you're writing a research paper, however, the paper will only be as strong as the sources cited. Since Web searches tend to pull up many results that have the potential to be far from credible, students need to break the "just google it" habit. To steer them in the right direction, we've narrowed it down to 12 of the best tools for quality research and proper citations."

"It's Top-Pick List Friday! This week, we are featuring engaging games for the classroom. Students will lose themselves in thought-provoking gameplay with these apps, games, and websites "

"Part of what makes games great is how subjective our enjoyment of them can be. The best games unravel in different ways for different people; we play them differently and in different contexts, changing what they mean to us. Unfortunately, when we evaluate games for the classroom we often don't consider how mutable they are. We see them as either containing a certain amount of educational content or not. Some games fit into this model, sure. But for games that are more akin to, say, modeling clay than quizzes -- the learning value is up for grabs; they need people to give them shape and context. On its face, Geoguessr -- a geography guessing game that tosses players into random parts of the world (using Google's Street View) -- doesn't seem to have much traditional educational value. There's not much to be memorized and used on a typical geography test. Players guess where they are rather than know it, and guessing is bad, right? Not quite. Because what Geoguessr gets kids to do is think about what the essence of geography is. It asks the player to consider "place" in every sense, not just from the perspective of a geographer. It asks the player to think like an anthropologist, a scientist, indeed - a detective. In fact, it's one of my go-to examples of "21st century literacy," that notoriously murky way of looking at the world that's tough to understand, let alone teach."

"Our latest webinar hosted by our Digital Citizenship community on edWeb, "Cyberbullying, Sexting, and Social Media Use," had a record-breaking 427 attendees, the highest number of live attendees we've ever had in an edWeb webinar! Educators from around the globe came to learn from Dr. Elizabeth Englander, professor of psychology at Bridgewater State University. Elizabeth covered what she's learned through her research on youth, including"

"To get your new school year started off right, we present: the best of the best! The six lists linked below feature must-have apps for 1-to-1 classrooms using Android tablets or iPads. We've organized our picks by platform and grade level to make it easier for you to find the great recommendations you're looking for. No matter which list you explore, the apps featured here come with tons of content that will keep students engaged and productive. This year, add another dimension to their everyday learning with these top-rated apps!"

"If you don't know about Subtext, you and your students are missing out! With an iPad app, a Web version, and integration with Edmodo, Subtext allows all students the ability to read and annotate a text together. Gone are the days of using sticky notes to mark pages and take notes. Take a dive into the 21st century with the most real-time close reading experience available. Teachers and students can annotate questions, quizzes, pictures, and discuss, all within the text using this fabulous tool."

"New Digital Citizenship Starter Kit for Remind"

"Summer is just around the corner. What a perfect time for kids to get swept away in the plot of a great page-turner. Our latest research report, Children, Teens, and Reading, shows that adolescents aren't reading much for fun. A third of 13-year-olds and 45% of 17-year-olds say they've read for pleasure one to two times a year, if that. However, we know that kids read on their devices all the time -- whether to check their social media feeds, look up a random fact on Wikipedia, or keep up with text messages from friends."

"For today's tweens and teens, technology is part of the fabric of everyday life. They're watching TV on lots of devices and using smartphones and tablets to maximum advantage -- texting, researching, sharing, connecting -- sometimes using multiple devices at once. Educators need to understand how technology fits in children's lives to know how it can be used to support learning. But we can't begin to make sense of what these technological changes mean for kids until we understand what's being used and for how long and how kids feel about technology and media. That's why we're pleased to release a new report, the Common Sense Census: Media Use by Tweens and Tweens, which paints a more complete picture of how tweens and teens are using media. Some findings may not be surprising: Kids like to multitask while doing homework. Other findings point to continued challenges around digital equity: Lower-income teens have less access to home computers and are less likely to use them for homework. Here are more findings:"

"When I put together this list of top-rated games of 2015, I noticed that though the tools varied in target grades and subjects, they shared some key things. As Mitch Resnick of the MIT Media Lab has argued, if you want to know if a tool is good for learning, first look to see if it aids kids' creativity and expression. I think many (if not all) the tools on this list get kids there, but they don't all take the same path. Some of these tools explicitly help kids make things while others foster thinking and reflection skills that complicate and expand their understanding of themselves and their worlds. They show us how great games can be for learning and inspire others to follow their lead."

"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. "

"For May, we celebrated the power of makers with the themes of media making and DIY. We featured great tools for creating presentations, videos, and podcasts, as well as articles about best practices for student self-publishing, remix, and tutorial making. "