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So with the caveat that I am only halfway through Mark Bauerline's book The Dumbest Generation, I have some early impressions to throw out there. While I think there is some merit to this side of the debate (much like Keen's Cult of the Amateur) what really bothers me about this book so far is, as the title suggests, this sense that our kids are at fault. Let me put it plainly: our kids are not "dumb" nor is this generation "dumb" simply because they spend a lot of time in front of television screens and computers or because they haven't worked out for themselves how to get smarter using the Read/Write Web.

Phones and computers contain dangerous metals like lead, cadmium and mercury, which can contaminate the air and water when those products are dumped. It's called electronic waste, or e-waste, and the world produces a lot of it: 20 to 50 million tons a year, according to the UN - enough to load a train that would stretch around the world. The U.S. is by far the world's top producer of e-waste, but much of it ends up elsewhere - specifically, in developing nations like China, India and Nigeria, to which rich countries have been shipping garbage for years.

# Unlimited access of Elluminate Live! Lite Edition™ for one year, with full-duplex audio, shared whiteboard, chat, math symbol library, graphing calculator, advanced moderator tools, and much more.

Within this page,the complex processes involved in reading comprehension are divided into three categories (much like the National Reading Panel Report). The categories include vocabulary instruction, text comprehension instruction, and teacher preparation and comprehension strategies instruction. You'll also find useful websites that students can visit to practice their use of comprehension strategies with fiction and non-fiction texts at a variety of reading levels.

Many schools and teachers have not yet recognized-much less responded to-the new ways students communicate and access information over the Internet.

"[This is part of the Infographic Design Series. Check out the other posts!] Good visual arrangement for infographics is putting together graphic and visual elements in a manner that draws your reader's attention. The key to achieving simple, elegant and attractive content are ample whitespace and a well arranged layout. What is whitespace? White space is as its name defined-space that is unmarked in a piece of infographic or visual representation. It could be margins, padding or the space between columns, text and icons and design elements. Whitespace matters to create visually engaging content A page crammed full of text and images will appear busy. This makes the content difficult to read. It makes you unable to focus on the important stuff too. On the other hand, too much of white space can make your page look incomplete. It is always crucial to remember visually engaging content is usually clean and simple. Here's an example of what I mean. whitespace-matters Understanding common infographics layouts help ease visual arrangement Infographic layouts refer to the arrangement of your visual elements and your content. When you begin working on a piece of infographic, you should have a story to tell hence, you will need to select a layout that best suits your story. Using the right layout will ensure good readability and convey your message well. We have put together a cheat sheet for your quick reference to the right arrangement to use, here are six common ones you can quickly work with. Infographic Layout Cheat Sheet Useful Bait: Works well with most types of data. Rather than focusing on design, it works more for practicality, thus making it easy to read. For instance, a reference sheet where you can print it out and use it over and over again. If your content has many subtopics to a main subject, this layout enables you to segregate them into clean chunks that are easy to consume. Versus/Comparison: This layout is typically split vertically to

In order to meet the educational requirement of the peoples of different categories of disabilitiesthere is an emerging need of special schools but a glance into the growth of the schools for thedisabled since independence to till today shows that it is very much dismal and hence there is anurgency of inclusive education.

In order to meet the educational requirement of the peoples of different categories of disabilitiesthere is an emerging need of special schools but a glance into the growth of the schools for thedisabled since independence to till today shows that it is very much dismal and hence there is anurgency of inclusive education.

Read out this blog entry for easy craft ideas for toddlers. These are very much helpful in raising their imagination power and develop ability to work independently.

Read out this blog entry for easy craft ideas for toddlers. These are very much helpful in raising their imagination power and develop ability to work independently.

"Even though it's October it still feels very much like the beginning of the year. One of the first thoughts that many teachers have about their students is "they look so little!" It's true. Those tall confident students that left us have gone on to be "little" to next year's teacher and we have our own new crop of "little" people to educate. This becomes even more pronounced in a technology classroom. Everything takes longer, typing, starting, opening, finding, searching. Whatever it is they need time to figure it out. Patience is key. So what can we do?"

"Why do teenagers seem so much more impulsive, so much less self-aware than grown-ups? Cognitive neuroscientist Sarah-Jayne Blakemore compares the prefrontal cortex in adolescents to that of adults, to show us how typically "teenage" behavior is caused by the growing and developing brain."

"Recently, I had the opportunity to attend a flipped classroom workshop. As many of you know, I have been fairly critical and skeptical of the flipped classroom model. I was engaged in a conversation with some folks on twitter about the model and was extended an invite to a workshop so I could see firsthand what it was all about. I wanted to attend this workshop to either prove myself right or to put my foot in my mouth and I was very much open to both possibilities. For those not familiar with the flipped model or flipped classroom, there are plenty of articles out there explaining it…just google it. "

"In Visible Learning John Hattie basically says that almost everything we do in our efforts to help students in schools has a positive effect on students. However, much of what we do actually isn't terribly effective… despite our beliefs in these practices. (For example: Homework)"

"How we learn is changing in response to a changing environment, from fluid digital environments to constant access to information, incredible peer networks to learning simulations, 21st century learning is teeming with possible learning pathways. So it seemed appropriate to take a look at a handful of these new approaches-not so much formal learning approaches such as project-based learning or mobile learning, but rather some of the platforms and tools themselves. The immediate benefit is to take inventory in what's available now. But picture, we can kind of trace a line through these emerging approaches to get an idea of where learning is headed, and what we might expect in the next 3-5 years as the blistering pace of changes continue-and how the "crowd" will be a part of it all."

"Most of us use iPad only as a peripheral device to our computers and this is probably understood because of the nature and interface of computers that allow for much more freedom and space in handling our browsing and online navigation. For instance, I personally can not do certain things on iPad and I prefer to perform them on my laptop as is the case with writing this post and all my blog posts.That being said, there are now several apps out there that can improve the workflow of your day using iPad. These apps are designed specifically to work hand in hand with your computer and they will allow you to connect, share, and control your computer using your iPad. Thank you Greg for the list."

"BYOT worked so well in each of these cases for four reasons: we planned/prepared, were flexible, had an open discussion with students and did not tie ourselves to one platform or Internet access. The problem with integrating most technology is that schools and teachers rely too much on Internet access. We forget that even without the Internet, laptops and mobile devices are very powerful tools."

"If you've ever run into a .zip file on an iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad you will probably have discovered it's a bit of a dead-end initially, because by default there isn't much you can do with zips or any other archive format. That doesn't mean you can't open ZIP files though, and in fact these archives can be viewed, unzipped, and opened in iOS with relative ease, but you will need to download a free third party app before you'll have the function included on your device. This will allow you view all of the contents of any zip file quickly, and also decompress the entire archive, or just extract a single file from a larger archive, providing quick access to the zip contents which can be saved locally or opened in another application of choice."

"This past year, fourth and fifth grade students at Independence Elementary School in Yukon, Oklahoma, have had the opportunity to participate in an after-school Scratch Club led by STEM teacher Chris Simon. Scratch is a free program from the MIT Media Lab, which permits learners of any age to create games, tell stories, make animations, and much more. In its new 2.0 version, Scratch is entirely web-based, so it can even run on a Chromebook! Yesterday was the final day of "Scratch Club" for students at Independence Elementary this year, and several students shared the reasons why they enjoy Scratch and have loved the Scratch Club. In this five minute video compilation of their ideas, pay attention to how several students mention the importance of "agency" and choice. Many report how they love the opportunity to be self-directed in their learning and to have opportunities to use their imaginations to create. Also notice the way one student references the "hard fun" of programming, which is something Gary Stager talks about often in the context of students learning to code. "