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Qtrax is the world's first free and legal peer-to-peer (P2P) digital music site. Music lovers can discover new music and legally download full-length, high-quality versions of their favorite songs while compensating both the artists and the record labels through non-intrusive and relevant advertising. Qtrax has the unparalleled support of the major record labels and all of their respective publishing divisions. Qtrax and its components are developed by LTDnetwork Inc. a division of Brilliant Technologies Corporation.

"I was listening to Chris Molanphy's excellent Hit Parade podcast this week, which is based on his equally great Hit Parade column for Slate Magazine. In this episode, he details the circumstances that lead the Beatles to hold the still-unbeaten record of having the top 5 spots on the Billboard charts all at once. More remarkably, it's not that this feat was achieved through their own talent - it was almost entirely a snafu caused by the lack of interest in the Beatles by major labels. Indeed, much of the feedback they had received from labels and the American music industry was tepid at best and negative at worst. Dick Rowe at Decca Records cemented his place in history by declining to sign the Beatles, saying "Guitar groups are on the way out." He wasn't wrong - the data he had showed that there wasn't likely to be much of a return in signing the Beatles. Instead, Decca signed Brian Poole and the Tremeloes, who would cost them less money. And so, you're probably wondering how in the world this connects to education. When I look at this moment in history, I see a lot of talented people making choices which are informed by data. As teachers, we too need to look at data. It's how we understand our students better, and when used properly, can be influential in shaping our practice to make our teaching more effective. Certainly data is used as a summative tool, but it is most useful as a formative tool for students and teachers alike. How does the use of data in regards to the Beatles relate to teachers?"

ollaboration Tools Collaborative learning is essentially people working together to solve a problem, create a product, or derive meaning from a body of material. A central question or problem serves to organize and drive activities, and encourage application, analysis, and synthesis of course material. While the landscape of technology that can be used to support central activities of collaborative learning is vast and varied, it is often lumped together under a single label: "collaboration tools." Given this vast and distributed landscape of tools, the difficulty of finding one or a set of tools to meet your goals can be time intensive. We are here to help. For faculty who are interested in learning more, want to explore, or try out a tool, contact us to talk with an Eberly colleague in person.

"Talkin' 'bout my label "

"You can customize your own spinner with your own labels using the tools below the spinner. You can save your spinner for later use by either copying the address from the browser or by using the sharing buttons embedded on this page."

"Preteens and teens may appear dazzlingly fluent, flitting among social-media sites, uploading selfies and texting friends. But they're often clueless about evaluating the accuracy and trustworthiness of what they find. Some 82% of middle-schoolers couldn't distinguish between an ad labeled "sponsored content" and a real news story on a website, according to a Stanford University study of 7,804 students from middle school through college. The study, set for release Tuesday, is the biggest so far on how teens evaluate information they find online. Many students judged the credibility of newsy tweets based on how much detail they contained or whether a large photo was attached, rather than on the source."

"Most kids really appreciate today's technology. Want to know what the latest must-have phone is? What about the newest game or app? Often, you need look no further than the students in your classes. Many of them are passionate about using the coolest gadgets and tools. That's why teaching with cutting-edge technology can be a great way to connect with your students. The right app can make even the most boring or time-consuming subject seem interesting and understandable. Financial concepts like budgeting, buying a house, or running a business may not be the most exciting subjects for students, but it's important to teach kids financial literacy starting at a young age. ZipBooks is free accounting software that can help familiarize them with concepts around running a business. The interface is easy to grasp so students can jump right into the app with little instruction. It's not overwhelming like a lot of accounting software. Every element is labeled clearly, and there are in-app tips to help newcomers get started. There are lots of ways you could use ZipBooks in the classroom and we have outlined a couple ideas to get you started."

"Mind mapping. concept mapping, or brainstorming are three different names with almost the same meaning : collecting,organizing , and representing ideas, tasks, words, or other items linked to and arranged around a central key word or idea into a mind map diagram . Whichever kind of mapping you want to label it , web 2.0 has some free tools for you to help you perform it. "

"There are a lot of labels that describe the ethos and characteristics of certain times in history. The Dark Ages. The Renaissance. The Age of Enlightenment. Most recently, we've browsed, texted, and Google'd our way through the Information Age. What comes next, and when does it start? Further, what causes the movement from one epoch to another, and how does that change once technology is not just a catalyst, but the foundation for social interactions?"

Maths Frame is a site that offers more than 170 mathematics games for elementary / primary school students. The games cover basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. On the site you'll also find some games for practicing recognition, probability, and scale reading. The games can be played without registering on the site. Some of the games are labeled as as "subscribers only." Those games marked as "subscribers only" are not free.

"In school, it was those who could recall the facts, and particularly those who could recall them quickly.  If you could memorize your multiplication tables you were quickly labelled as "smart".  Smart was a product of a system based on sorting - some kids were smart, and the other kids were . . . well, we didn't really call them anything aloud, but the implication was that they were less than smart. And in the traditional school smart hierarchy - the matching of provinces and capital cities along with the ability to memorize weekly spelling words was the apex of smartness. Of course, the last 20 years have moved us away from a world of knowledge scarcity to knowledge abundance; now, all manner of information is available to everyone. For better or worse, we no longer look to our political and intellectual leaders for their all-knowing guidance, we quickly check what they have said with what we read on Wikipedia, Web Doctor MD or other online information available to us."

"The maker movement and maker education, in my perspective, are such great initiatives - really in line with what student-centric education should be in this era of formal and informal learning. Maker education (often referred to as "Maker Ed") is a new school of educational thought [at least in terms of having an "official" educational label - JG] that focuses on delivering constructivist, project-based learning curriculum and instructional units to students. Maker education spaces can be as large as full high school workshops with high-tech tools, or as small and low-tech as one corner of an elementary classroom. A makerspace isn't just about the tools and equipment, but the sort of learning experience the space provides to students who are making projects. (9 Maker Projects for Beginner Maker Ed Teachers) Social media has helped me gain a more global perspective and become aware of some of the problems associated with the maker movement. The two I discuss in this post are: Maker movement initiatives are often driven by more affluent white males. The maker movement is too often being associated with the tech stuff - Arduinos, Littlebits, Makey-Makeys - stuff that less affluent schools and community programs can afford."

"I was asked recently why I have a strong interest and innate understanding of the growth mindset. I believe it comes from a background of being an adventure educator, and even though it was not labeled as such, the adventure educator embraces a growth mindset when working with participants. The underlying tenet of adventure education is "You are capable of so much more than you can even imagine. I believe in you and your capabilities; and I will set up the conditions for you to develop and amplify that same belief in yourself.""

"I cringe when people ask me, "Are you handy?" Partly because I don't consider myself to be the best with tools, but also because it is asking me to judge whether or not I'm capable of fixing, making, or crafting something. Here's the thing, I didn't know how to put new shower tiles in and patch up my existing dry wall with cement board when we had a leak last year…but I had a friend help get me started, I watched a few DIY Youtube videos, looked at some articles online, and now I know how to do that (although not too well). The same thing happens in high schools all the time. The "handy" kids go to shop class, the "artsy" kids go to art class, the "business" kids go to business classes, the "techy" kids go to web design classes and so on… It's got to stop. We can't continue labeling kids as one thing or another thing. What we know about the future workforce is that creativity, making, and innovating will be at the center of most jobs…and that will require students to be all of the above: 'Experts predict that 50 per cent of occupations today will no longer exist by 2025 as people will take up more creative professions,' said Martin Chen, Chief Operating Officer of Genesis."

"I've been a #MakerMom since my daughter learned to walk. I didn't label it that way, though, until she was in first grade and received a copy of Fashioning Technology from one of the editors of O'Reilly media. This book changed the course of her life in many ways, and how she thought of herself. For the first time she had a way of thinking about what she did so naturally - make things - and a community of support, encouragement and learning where she could develop her passion fearlessly. The Maker Movement is more than electronics, robots, 3-d printing and drones. It is a way of thinking and a stance towards learning and community that is collaborative, participative, critical without being judgmental, and inclusive. One way that Making supports education is the natural evolution from any of the myriad entry points towards facility with electronics, design, coding, engineering, and iterative approaches."

"As you know, there are a zillion tools in the technosphere for developing just about anything imaginable-some are good; some not so much. That said, when I recently discovered a collection of tools compiled into one resource by one of my favorite edtech gurus using one of my go-to tools, I knew I had to get the thumbs up to share it on my space. Soooo, if you're in need of some excellent ways to create one or more of the following-graphics, infographics, images, labels, posters, flyers, lists of info, tutorials and more for classroom and/or professional development purposes, then the TechChef's Smooth Tools is a must-see concoction of geeky goodness."

Social media might be old. It might even be a dead buzzword. That's why you need to paint a picture that's more meaningful and encompasses what "social media" as a label really is.

"One of the most common early complaints about the iPhone was its lack of support for cut, copy, and paste text editing capabilities. In fact, Apple didn't add a copy-paste feature until 2009's release of iOS 3.0, two years after the iPhone's initial launch. Similar Articles: Five favorite text-selection tips Lion: The Complete Macworld Review Tips and tricks for printing labels in Bento 4 Hands on with Adobe InDesign CS5.5 What's new in Lion: Versions, Auto Save, and Resume Hands on with Amazon's Kindle Cloud Reader But if you didn't watch Steve Job demonstrate copy and paste back then, you might not know how to make it work on your iOS device. Here's a quick primer."