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"As I've moved into the second half of my 20's and noticed my metabolism slowing down I've begun to pay more attention to my health. MyFitnessPal HD is a free app touted as one of the best for keeping track of your daily calorie intake and exercise regimen. "

"Using personal iPhones and iPads in the office leads many people to work from them while on vacation. Our iPhones and iPads, which enable us to work and be on call virtually anywhere at any time, will lead to more than half of us working while on vacation. That's the result of a new study that looked at how technology impacts the work/life balance. iOS devices are common players in the bring your own device (BYOD) era. As BYOD programs lead many of us to use our personal iOS devices and other mobile technology for work-related tasks, they also encourage an "always on" attitude from employers and employees alike."

"A few months ago I took a survey of my elementary kids to see what kind of mobile technology they had at home and it turned out that 53% of my students in 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades had iPads and 82% had iPods! With over half of my students having iPads, there is no doubt that soon they will be bringing these devices to school - so it go me thinking…"

"When the gift-giving season for 2011 came around, the dreaded word 'iPad' appeared on the wishlist of nearly half the children in America. Parents across the country feared that the expensive handheld would become just another video game console tossed in the toybox. Now, while the flashy graphics and wide array of entertainment apps can paint that sort of picture, many app designers are actually tending toward interactive learning tools for their younger users. Was this portable PC really designed with education in mind?"

"A whole year and a half ago, I wrote up a five part blog series about how I got to use a set of 20 iPads for two weeks. It was a phenomenal two weeks. "

"The answer to the question of how much can you eat of different foods before you hit 200 calories varies, depending what you're consuming. Two hundred calories is a whole lot of apples, but less than half of a Big Mac. It's a plate full of broccoli, but more like a spoonful of peanut butter. But it's a lot easier to understand what that really means when you actually see the food in front of you in this video from ASAP Science."

"CHICAGO - By the time they reach eighth grade, according to federal tests, half of all African-American schoolboys have not mastered the most basic math skills that educators consider essential for their grade level. A new paper being released Monday by the National Bureau of Economic Research suggests a promising approach for helping the most challenged students, who often arrive in high school several years behind their peers."

"We've been in BYOD mode for half a year, and I've already shared some best practices for the classroom with you. Putting on my IT hat, here are some of the things I've learned that you should consider as you work through your own BYOD plans and implementation. "

"Like it or not, American youth are decidedly online. According to a 2013 report by Pew Research, 78 percent of teens have cell phones, and almost half of those are smartphones - which means they can log onto the Internet virtually anywhere, any time. You can bet many of those students are also using social media tools like Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat - maybe to excess."

Well worth the half hour

"Store Van Music embarked on a tour of schools in the UK and help the students create outstanding music using iPads and their minds. Their stated goal is to put a stop to the 80% dropout rate of students in the musical arts. As you can see from their website, they're a passionate bunch with some terrific motivation. They've made another video recently, and within an hour and a half of the release, it reached number 1 in iTunes children's charts. As of this writing, it is the 19th most watched music video in the UK. Talk about cutting-edge, relevant music education! Check out the video below, and use it as a little inspiration when you're not feeling sure that technology is enhancing your classroom!"

"Summer and vacation go together like, well, two of the best things in the world. Parents have time off from work, kids have time off from school, the weather is nice, the sun is shining, and travel beckons. Whether it's a day at a local fun spot, a trip across country, or an adventure half-way around the world, memories will be made. Amazing memories, crazy memories, shared memories. No matter how great a vacation is, however, you can never be there forever, nor can you take everyone you love with you. What you can do is bring the vacation home for you and for them! With your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad, not only can you take videos and pictures of those magic travel moments, but you can edit and share them right in iMovie, even right away if you want to. Best of all, for kids (of all ages!), iMovie's trailer templates make it incredibly quick and easy to put together something short, sweet, and fun!"

"t took a little while for the apps to come into their own, but we're at a place now where the iPad has nearly as good of a selection of apps as the iPhone. Now, it's harder than ever to find apps that are worthwhile. Let us save you some time with this collection of the best iPad apps. The Lifehacker Pack is a yearly snapshot of our favorite, must-have applications for each of our favorite platforms. This list focuses specifically on apps that really shine on the iPad, so no half-done, blown up iPhone apps here."

"The short answer is that Strogatz has discovered a certain thrill in rectifying the crimes and misdemeanors of math education. Strogatz asks his students, more than half of them seniors, to provide a "mathematical biography." Their stories reveal unpleasant experiences with math along the way. Rather than question the quality of the teaching they received, they blamed math itself-or worse, their own intelligence or lack of innate talent. Strogatz loves the challenge, "There's something remarkable about working with a group of students who think they hate math or find it boring, and then turning them around, even just a little bit.""

"Research by the Penn Graduate School of Education (from the University of Pennsylvania), looking at 1 million students on 16 courses run through Coursera, showed that only half of those enrolled look at a single lecture and an average of 4% completed the course. Let's assume that there's nothing wrong with the product, and nothing wrong with the theory that easier access to education is No Bad Thing. It's something else. It's a commitment thing. It's too much to ask, too big a shift in 'consumer' behaviour, from directed learning to self-directed. So perhaps we should get used to this new style of learning in easier ways. Self-direction without the pressures. Accessing some of the finest academic minds, but because you want to, not because it's a compulsory step in your education paperchase. And if its education for its own sake, then look at these as a starting point. Six of the best/most intriguing free online courses focusing on science, from some of the best boffins around. Dip in, get used to the idea, and follow the video trails they offer til you find what you're intrigued and interested in. So dive in, make yourself clever…"

"24% of teens go online "almost constantly," facilitated by the widespread availability of smartphones. Aided by the convenience and constant access provided by mobile devices, especially smartphones, 92% of teens report going online daily - including 24% who say they go online "almost constantly," according to a new study from Pew Research Center. More than half (56%) of teens - defined in this report as those ages 13 to 17 - go online several times a day, and 12% report once-a-day use. Just 6% of teens report going online weekly, and 2% go online less often."

"Educational author and former teacher, Dr. Michael Schmoker shares in his book, Results Now, a study that found of 1,500 classrooms visited, 85 percent of them had engaged less than 50 percent of the students. In other words, only 15 percent of the classrooms had more than half of the class at least paying attention to the lesson. So, how do they know if a student is engaged? What do "engaged" students look like? In my many observations, here's some evidence to look for:"

"Math Slicer is an iPad app that presents a fun alternative to using flashcards to practice basic mathematics skills. In Math Slicer students are shown addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division problems that they have to answer by "slicing" the correct answer in half. The answer choices jump up on the screen and students have to slice them before they disappear."

"Times have never been better for computer science workers. Jobs in computing are growing at twice the national rate of other types of jobs. By 2020, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there will be 1 million more computer science-related jobs than graduating students qualified to fill them. If any company has a vested interest in cultivating a strong talent pool of computer scientists, it's Google. So the search giant set out to learn why students in the US aren't being prepared to bridge the talent deficit. In a big survey conducted with Gallup and released today, Google found a range of dysfunctional reasons more K-12 students aren't learning computer science skills. Perhaps the most surprising: schools don't think the demand from parents and students is there. Google and Gallup spent a year and a half surveying thousands of students, parents, teachers, principals, and superintendents across the US. And it's not that parents don't want computer science for their kids. A full nine in ten parents surveyed viewed computer science education as a good use of school resources. It's the gap between actual and perceived demand that appears to be the problem."