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"Q. How do you take screen shots of articles and then post them on Twitter, with sections highlighted and the URL of the article included? A. Annotating screen shots of text passages - and then posting the image and a link to the article on Twitter - is an effective way to make a point with the selected text. It also lets you get around the service's 140-character limit. You can mark up the screen shot's text in a few different ways on a mobile device or computer."

Online learning has come a long way in the last few years.Flickr/Laurie Sullivan When I started learning to code, the options were limited-lots of books (not even e-books), some very basic online tutorials, and a whole lot of experimentation. Online learning has come a long way in the last few years. There are interactive courses, tons of online tutorials, and one of my personal favorite ways to practice coding: games. While a game alone probably isn't going to teach you everything you need to know about coding, it can be a really incredible way to practice the skills you're learning. It makes practice fun. And if you're anything like me, you might suddenly realize you've spent the last four hours reinforcing your coding skills without even realizing it. I've tried out some of the most entertaining and useful games for learning to code. Check out my favorites below. View As: One Page Slides

"We live in a stressful world, and the stress is heightened for students and educators when it's time to prepare for high-stakes tests. When test scores are tied to school funding, teacher evaluations, and students' future placement, the consequences of these stressors can be far-reaching. From a neurological perspective, high stress disrupts the brain's learning circuits and diminishes memory construction, storage, and retrieval. Neuroimaging research shows us that, when stresses are high, brains do not work optimally, resulting in decreased understanding and memory. In addition, stress reduces efficient retrieval of knowledge from the memory storage networks, so when under pressure students find it harder to access information previously studied and learned. Get the best of Edutopia in your inbox each week. Students (and their parents) often interpret suboptimal standardized test scores as a measure of the students' limitations in intelligence and potential. The consequence is a loss of confidence, further activating their brains' stress response, making it more difficult for them to employ their cognitive resources and knowledge during the tests themselves."

"I work part-time with elementary learners - with gifted learners during the school year and teaching maker education camps during the summer. The one thing almost all of them have in common is yelling out, "I can't do this" when the tasks aren't completed upon first attempts or get a little too difficult for them. I partially blame this on the way most school curriculum is structured. Too much school curriculum is based on paper for quick and one shot learning experiences (or the comparable online worksheets). Students are asked to do worksheets on paper, answer end-of-chapter questions on paper, write essays on paper, do math problems on paper, fill in the blanks on paper, and pick the correct answer out of a multiple choice set of answers on paper. These tasks are then graded as to the percentage correct and then the teacher moves onto the next task. So it is no wonder that when learners are given hands-on tasks such as those common to maker education, STEM, and STEAM, they sometimes struggle with their completion. Struggles are good. Struggles with authentic tasks mimics real life so much more than completing those types of tasks and assessments done at most schools. Problems like yelling out, "I can't do this" arise when the tasks get a little too difficult, but ultimately are manageable. I used to work with delinquent kids within Outward Bound-type programs. Most at-risk kids have some self-defeating behaviors including those that result in personal failure. The model for these types of programs is that helping participants push past their self-perceived limitations results in the beginnings of a success rather than a failure orientation. This leads into a success building upon success behavioral cycle."

"If there is one piece of advice that is drilled into you as a new parent, it is to limit screen time. Bringing home our first baby, I may have not known how to effectively swaddle or change a diaper, but I did know, "back is best" and "no screen time for children under two." Yet, screens are something we as parents are constantly interacting with. In those early days of parenting, our parents laughed as we announced that we would not expose our children to screens. Yet screens are such a piece of our world. How could I expect a child not to find interest in the screens and technology that we interact with routinely? Does this abstinence approach to teaching new parents and those who work with our youngest learners do more harm than good? Does coding and computational thinking have a place in early childhood education? Yes, it certainly does. "

"With so many Raspberry Pi projects to choose from, it can be tricky to find the one you really want to build. Our advice is to find a way to marry the Pi with something you really love. One great example is TV and movie robots - iconic characters from popular sci-fi that can be rebuild at home with a Raspberry Pi built in. Once constructed, your robot might be able to utter commands when a condition is met (perhaps a sensor detects motion). Or it might move around, learning about its surroundings, or reading information to you from Wikipedia. Whatever you have in mind, it should be relatively straightforward to plan and execute. It may take some time, however. Here are five example projects that show how you can combine a Raspberry Pi 2 or later with your favorite fictional robot. 5 Things Only a Raspberry Pi 2 Can Do 5 Things Only a Raspberry Pi 2 Can Do The latest edition of the pint-sized computer is awesome. So awesome, in fact, that there's 5 things you can only do on a Raspberry Pi 2. READ MORE 1. R2-D2 We've all wanted our very own astromech droid, haven't we? Sure, no one on earth is (currently) operating a light speed drive, but Star Wars droid R2-D2 has far greater abilities than onboard spacecraft maintenance. For instance, he can hold torches, carry a tray of drinks, and launch lightsabers across pits in the desert. Okay, it's unlikely you'll manage to get your own R2-D2 robot to do that… but don't let that put you off. Check out this little guy, controlled by a Raspberry Pi. While this project was based on an existing R2-D2 toy, that shouldn't limit your ambition. You'll find plenty of R2-D2 builds on YouTube. There's a massive R2-D2 building community online. Finding one that has a drive unit should be ideal for integrating a Raspberry Pi (and perhaps an Arduino, which you can use the two together) and developing a more realistic R2-D2 experience. Arduino vs Raspberry Pi: Which Is The Mini Computer For You? Arduino vs Rasp

"Two years ago, four instructional designers in the University of California System decided to undertake a research project on "mobile learning." Their first order of business: figure out what that is. "It's just so new that the researchers who have been trying to define it have found it so dynamic," said Mindy Colin, an instructional consultant at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Enjoying this article from Inside Digital Learning? Sign up for the free weekly newsletter. Continue Popular Today From Inside Digital Learning U.S. settlements with two Christian universities test limits of incentive compensation rules New data: Online enrollments grow, and share of overall enrollment grows faster The 4 Things Every Digital Learning Leader Should Know Investors bet big on the companies formerly known as MOOC providers They eventually settled on a definition from Educause: "Using portable computing devices (such as iPads, laptops, tablet PCs, PDAs and smartphones) with wireless networks enables mobility and mobile variation related to instructional approaches, disciplines, learning goals and technological tools." But they still struggled to define for themselves the parameters of their investigation."

"As parents, we all want to raise kids who are smart and focused, especially in a world where digital distraction seems to be inescapable. (Even tech titans like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates have strategies for limiting their children's screen time.) Why? Because in the future, there will be two kinds of people in the world: Those who let their attention and lives be controlled and coerced by others and those who proudly call themselves "indistractable." Becoming indistractable is the most important skill for the 21st century - and it's one that many parents fail to teach their kids. After years of studying the intersection of psychology, technology and how we engage with it, one of the biggest mistakes I see parents making is not empowering their kids with the autonomy to control their own time. Allowing them to do so is a tremendous gift; even if they fail from time to time, failure is part of the learning process. Parents need to understand that it's okay to put their kids in charge, because it's only when they learn to practice monitoring their own behavior that they learn how to manage their own time and attention. Teach them at a young age"

"Content curation is nothing new and has always been a coveted skill. It has been this way for hundreds of years - think of art galleries, museums, or newspapers.  Educators, too, have always been curators- bringing together the most valuable materials to help their learners learn. However, in the past, this might have been limited to books, posters, concrete materials, guest speakers, etc. However, as of now, we are in a world of information overload. So, to help you hone your digital content curation skills, we decided to list some tips."

"I have written before (HERE) about the importance of not just moving more, but developing physical literacy skills with students.  This was pre-pandemic. And if anything the limited activity many had during the COVID-19 pandemic increased these challenges leading to what many are seeing as a health crisis. In the world of education, we rightly emphasize intellectual growth, but the significance of physical health cannot be overstated. We are intentionally trying to do this differently in West Vancouver Schools. We are looking at the whole school environment to get students moving more often throughout the day.  For us physical health is not just about sports or fitness; it's a comprehensive approach encompassing mental and emotional well-being, community involvement, and personal development."

"Although ChatGPT became readily accessible to the public back in November of 2022, we are still in the early days of exploring and understanding these new powerful AI tools and their implications for education. For most schools around the world that means developing policies and guidelines that clarify how AI can and should be used by their students and educators, as well as which uses are prohibited or limited in a school setting. If your school does not have AI guidelines yet, you are certainly not alone. Many districts are still digging into this task with committees and pilot groups and more. Thankfully there are many organizations and schools that have been blazing a trail in this area by developing and sharing their own AI policies, guidelines, and frameworks. I have been collecting links to these resources as I come across them and will share them below in this post. "

This site catelogues all sorts of courses. Education courses run the gambit from preparing to student teach to coaching skills. You take your course and then you somehow apply to have your knowledge assessed for credit...?