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"If the most recent U.S. Election has taught us anything it's that we live in an era of fake news and sites. With accusations flying of manipulation of stories, the media and voters, it's truly hard to know if what we read on blogs, social media and other sites is actually the truth or a tale spun to generate clicks. To further compound the problem a recent study from Stanford shows that the vast majority of students can't determine it what they read on websites is true or baloney. The study showed More than two out of three middle-schoolers couldn't see any valid reason to mistrust a post written by a bank executive arguing that young adults need more financial-planning help. And nearly four in 10 high-school students believed, based on the headline, that a photo of deformed daisies on a photo-sharing site provided strong evidence of toxic conditions near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan, even though no source or location was given for the photo. With many schools and districts rolling out 1:1 initiatives and a push to digitize learning, helping students understand where their information comes from, and if it is reliable and accurate are critical skills, not just for learning for but life as well."

"Mention robots to many English teachers and they'll immediately point down the hall to the science classroom or to the makerspace, if they have one. At many schools, if there's a robot at all, it's located in a science or math classroom or is being built by an after-school robotics club. It's not usually a fixture in English classrooms. But as teachers continue to work at finding new entry points to old material for their students, robots are proving to be a great interdisciplinary tool that builds collaboration and literacy skills. "For someone like me who teaches literature by lots of dead white guys, teaching programming adds relevance to my class," said Jessica Herring, a high school English teacher at Benton High School in Arkansas. Herring first experimented using Sphero, essentially a programmable ball, when her American literature class was studying the writing of early settlers. Herring pushed the desks back and drew a maze on the floor with tape representing the journey from Europe to the New World. Her students used class iPads and an introductory manually guided app to steer their Spheros through the maze. Herring, like many English teachers, was skeptical about how the Sphero robot could be a useful teaching tool in her classroom. She thought that type of technology would distract students from the core skills of reading, writing and analyzing literature. But she decided to try it after hearing about the success of another English teacher across the country."

"How are you making connections between your English Language Arts instruction and the work happening in social studies? Incorporating social studies reading passages into your instruction can help you address learning goals in both subject areas. If you are teaching a lesson about the American Revolution you might share a short selection of informational text so students can discuss cause and effect in a reading passage in the context of that moment in history. If you are reading a historical fiction novel you can use short reading passages to provide additional information on notable figures or events that pop up during the course of the story. Earlier this year I shared some favorite online resources for science reading passages (see the post here). There are a handful of great social studies reading passages organized on websites and available in mobile apps. Locating just-right resources for your classroom can be a struggle, especially when it comes to reading materials. As you begin the search for content to share with your students, you'll want to check out the range of resources featured on this list. Make sure to scroll to the bottom for a special link to reading response tools that students can use in combination with the resources on this list."

"So here it is: When you need the answers to life's burning questions or more along the educational lines, such as information for a presentation or report, you and your students most likely default to one of the most robust resources that currently exists: The Internet, or more specifically, Google. Because of the continuous evolution of mobile technology, it's simple to use, fast and in most cases, accurate. And here's the part where the infamous "but" word enters the equation… Yep, there's no doubt that we have a wealth resources at our fingertips; however, the real question becomes: Is snagging this stuff for our own purposes legal? What constitutes fair usage of various form of media? Open Educational Resources (OER) to the rescue. By taking a look at the infographic shown below, teachers and students can become more aware of how to locate images, documents and videos that can be edited, remixed and shared without copyright restrictions. Check. It. Out!"

"Pokémon Go is a cultural phenomenon that has gained so much in popularity over the last few weeks. This is basically an augmented reality game that you can play through your smart phone. The app uses the coordinates of your GPS to determine your location in the real world and provides you with Pokémon characters to view and catch. 'Pokémon are out there, and you need to find them. As you walk around a neighbourhood, your smartphone will vibrate when there's a Pokémon nearby. Take aim and throw a Poké Ball… You'll have to stay alert, or it might get away!'"

"As you've no doubt noticed, Pokémon GO has taken the world by storm since its release on July 5, 2016. It's getting people outside to actively explore their surroundings and giving millions their first experience with augmented reality. But it's also raising questions and concerns about whether the game's location and mapping features are compromising people's data and information and luring players into danger. With school starting up again soon, we wanted to offer some guidance for teachers on how to address and manage the Pokémon GO craze in your classroom and school. "

"On the night of Monday, June 13, someone stole my 12.9-inch iPad Pro from my bag during the annual Beard Bash event. I won't go into the gritty details, but suffice it to say my valuables (as well as those of my colleague Serenity Caldwell) were in a secure location. Unfortunately, secure doesn't always mean nothing bad will happen, and in this case, something bad did happen: My iPad Pro was removed from my bag, Serenity's belongings were stuffed into my bag to make it look full (I guess), and the iPad Pro went bye-bye. The night of the theft, long after Serenity and I had stashed our belongings, she approached me and asked why I'd put her coat inside my bag (which, of course, I hadn't done). After a minute or two of self doubt: "Had I put her coat in my bag? Maybe I just don't remember," I was certain I hadn't misremembered. I ran to our belongings to check out what happened and flew into a bit of a panic when I realized my iPad was definitely gone. I took a minute to pull myself together and got to work tracking down my missing iPad Pro."

"If you are a heavy user of Google Drive, chances are you already have so much of your content stored there. While Google Drive does provide some excellent organizing features that allow you to  sort out and categorize your content into an easily navigable interface , but sometimes the search process can be really overwhelming and this is why knowing how to smartly search your Drive can save you so much time and enable you to quickly locate and access your saved data. The visual we have for you today (for those of you who haven't seen it yet) features 8 excellent search tips to help you conduct effective searches in your Google Drive. Whether you are looking for documents that contain specific quotes or phrases, documents shared with you or with a particular person,  document under specific titles or type …etc, the tricks below will absolutely help you easily find them. All of the tips are taken from "

Technology Integration in Education is an App that does away with the hours of searching the net for the right instructional technology resources for you. TIE is the one stop location for everything related to educational technology.

"Here are 10 QR readers for your iPad - all bar one for Free. QR Code scanners can be lots of fun in the classroom. We have used them to generate discussion around types of data, presented classroom information as well as presenting clues to treasure hunts. The treasure hunt idea is always a popular way to finish a unit of work. We normally use QR codes to give hints to the next clue or to the location of the clues. The students have to use the information from the unit of work to solve the clues along the way. Lots of fun, lots of laughs and lots of learning. "

"This is a great site for locating apps for special needs education. a4cwsn is committed to helping the families and carers of children with special needs and the wider community of educators and therapists who support them, by producing videos that demonstrate how products designed to educate children and build their life skills really work from a user perspective. They have an easy to use apps index. "

"Last weekend, I took a small vacation to Montreal. While I like to travel, I am not an ambitious sightseer. The exception to this is when the sights I see involve food. I love food. It was a real treat to visit the Jean-Talon Market (French: Marché Jean Talon), which is a historical farmer's market located in Montreal's Little Italy district. I decided to use this gastronomic excursion as the object model for this week's app synergy use."

"The following is an excerpt from the book The App Generation: How Today's Youth Navigate Identity, Intimacy, and Imagination in a Digital World by Howard Gardner and Katie Davis. Let's dive directly into the world of educational apps. Our survey suggests that the majority - one might even say, the vast majority - of educational apps encourage pursuit of the goals and means of traditional education by digital means. They constitute convenient, neat, sometimes even seductive pathways to accomplish what were already goals in an earlier era: mastering concepts, learning arithmetical operations, identifying geographical locations or historical figures or key biological or chemical or physical processes. We could dub them "digital textbooks" or "lectures" or "pre-programmed educational conversations." Decades ago, major behaviorist B. F. Skinner called for teaching machines that would automate the traditional classroom, allow students to proceed at their own rate, provide positive feedback on correct answers, and either repeat a missed item or present that item via another pathway. Those sympathetic to Skinner's brand of psychology and to its associated educational regimen would easily recognize many apps today and would likely nod in approval at their slick, seductive interfaces."

"Last month, someone who works at a school in Milan, Italy contacted me. She wondered if I would be interested in connecting with a first grade classroom at her school to do something similar. Since the time change between our locations does not allow for synchronous conversation, we decided to play the game on Twitter using the hashtag #guessmynumber."

"I've heard a lot about Mystery Skype calls over the past few years. If you're not familiar with this term, the basic idea is that two classrooms chat via Skype and try to guess where the other class is from by answering questions with only yes or no answers. I've always thought this would be lots of fun, but it has always seemed out of the reach of my six year olds, many of whom are still struggling to realize that they live in both a city AND a province. Answering questions about our location would be out of the question. "

""FireChat" sounds like a phony location-based sex line. It's not, it's a messaging app for iOS. We already have Whatsapp, Facebook messenger, Snapchat etc, what makes FireChat different? You can chat "off the grid", even if there is no internet connection or mobile phone coverage. How is that possible? Instead of relying on a central server, it is based on peer-to-peer "mesh networking" and connects to nearby phones using Bluetooth and WiFi, with connectivity increasing as more people use it in an area."

"A long-tested curriculum for middle schoolers that blends algebra and geometry concepts with the programming of games is getting a new boost. Bootstrap, which has been around for about six years, is teaming up with Code.org and the New York City Foundation for Computer Science Education (CSNYC) to help educators learn how to teach students algebraic and geometric concepts with computer programming. The middle school curriculum, developed by Bootstrap, is free and aligns with the Common Core math standards. The organization also offers paid professional development workshops at locations around the country."

"I've written about a number of video, audio, and collage creation tools, with WeVideo, Audacity, and PicMonkey topping some of my lists. However, it can be a challenge for students to locate copyright-friendly media when using these tools for presentations or idea sharing. It's always best for students to create materials or use ones that are in the public domain. Here are some of the best resources I've found for the latter."

"GIS (Geographical Information Systems) is everywhere. From your smartphone to your tablet, location enabled devices are present in almost every household. With over 80% of all data having some type of spatial (or geographical) component, GIS and the principles of geographic data have relevancy everywhere. This course will introduce students to GIS and the principles of spatial data in their personal life as well as applications of GIS across various industries. Major components of the course include computer representation of geographic information, the basics of GIS databases, spatial analysis with GIS, and application areas of GIS. At the end of the course, students will have an understanding of elementary GIS theory and examples of GIS-based solutions in the world around them."

"I've shared lots of reasons why I'm a fan of QR codes.  i-Skool is a project that incorporates scannable technology and puts learning in motion.  Its goal is to enhance brain activity by getting kids on their feet as they practice cognitive skills.  Teachers create a quiz with an item connected to a color in a specific location.  Children receive directions on what to do based on what they scan as they move around with their mobile device."