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"BROOKLYN, New York - I'm sitting on the floor at The Academy of Talented Scholars (PS 682) in Bensonhurst, watching kindergarteners create robots on an iPad. It's one of the cutest things I've ever seen, and I don't even like children. The exercise is part of the curriculum led by co-teachers Stacy Butsikares and Allison Bookbinder, focused on helping the 5- and 6-year-old students come up with ways to solve problems. The first step is to identify a problem happening in the school. The kindergarteners come up with ideas like kids horsing around in the lunch line, or not throwing trash away properly, or making too much noise at recess. Students are instructed to create a robot that could solve the problem, and draw the robot on a piece of paper. Once the robot is sketched out, the real fun begins. Using the app The Robot Factory, these pint-sized problem-solvers bring their robot ideas to life."

The book 'Non Obvious' by Rohit Bhargava present an intriguing exploration of how careful observation and thought can reveal emerging trends and as the subtitle suggest 'predict the future'. For educators the ability to identify the trends which will deliver the best outcomes for our students from the noise of fads is alluring. While the talk of new technologies, of learner centric pedagogies and teaching for lifelong learning play the part of the obvious trends in education identifying the non-obvious trend is a more challenging endeavour.

"So when we saw the very useful teachbytes graphic above making some noise on pinterest on several different popular #edtech websites, it reminded us of the constant demands changing technologies place on existing ways we do business. When and in what contexts it makes sense to cite social media content is probably a more relevant post than sharing a graphic that simply shows the format, but they're both nice to have, yes?"

"ve been playing with ways to make a switch or button on my paper circuit artwork appear more integrated and purposeful. The robot I originally played with had a momentary button that I designed over the battery into the belly of the robot. See it here. The button also worked as the mechanism that closed the circuit. This time I bought a button online that was spliced into the circuit and not necessarily near the battery. This meant the connection to the battery was fixed and pushing the button (with a satisfying click noise) completed the circuit. I've been playing with ideas in preparation for the fall since I finally received the Donors Choose grant for supplies to try this with my students."

"The Anti-Bullying Alliance have announced that the theme for Anti-Bullying Week 2015 will be, 'Make a Noise about bullying'.  Taking place from the 16th - 20th November 2015, Anti-Bullying Week is a chance for schools and the wider community to take action against bullying. "

"Have you ever wondered just how loud a noise is? During a recent review of the SoundJaw iPad accessory, I needed to see if it really increased the volume of the iPad's speaker. What did I use to measure the sound level for the review? The iPhone version of Decibel Meter Pro (US$0.99, universal), a fun -- and useful -- app to measure the max, peak, and average dB (decibel) levels associated with a sound source."

"By definition, you are reading this on an electronic device. More than likely a tablet or a phone. And if that's the case, then it's more than likely that you're hunched over a little, head forward. Did you just sit up straighter? Thought so… The noises from medical researchers are increasingly shrill on the damage done to us by technology  and the back pain it causes - slumped postures, 'text neck' caused by leaning over our devices is causing wear and tear from the extra pressure the unnatural postures put on our spines. The warnings are, more and more, that this is reaching 'epidemic' proportions, with 'significant' numbers looking like they will need corrective surgery. So are you going to give up your mobile and tablet? No, of course not, that would just be silly, wouldn't it? So instead, try some corrective actions:"

"ll ludicrous jokes aside, isn't this how some educational institutions operate? Totally unaware of students' opinions about the very aspect of their own lives that will impact them the most? What might the educators excuses be? Too little time? Too many papers to grade? Unwillingness to learn something new? Fear of being knocked off the sage-on-the-stage pedestal? An allegiance to out-dated and inflexible lesson plans? Fear of facilitating a class full of learning noise and having it mistaken by administrators as chaos? Or, plain ole professional stagnation due to a detachment from the ever-burgeoning world of the connected, 21st Century Educator? But please excuse my lack of manners. I should not be treating readers like participants in a twenty questions session. Instead, I got an idea. Let's just ask the students some questions. Got time to listen? The Questions If you could improve public education, what three changes would you make? If you were a school principal, what types of teachers would you hire? If you were a school principal, what types of teachers would you fire? Do you believe smartphones should be allowed in school? How can all teachers integrate students' passions/talents/interests into their curricula? What are your passions/talents/interests? Please describe your future plans."

"What is a hashtag? A word or phrase preceded by a "#." How do hashtags work? Twitter can be a busy place with lots of tweets-and thus lots of "noise." A #hashtag is a way to aggregate tweets that are appended with a hashtag. Picture it like a magnet that attracts all messages categorized by that topical word or phrase."

"In case you didn't know there are thousands of educators and an array of learning communities over at Google+.  The bottom line is that many people are missing out on some great content, resources, and conversation.  From my point of view educators become quickly attached to one specific social media tool as their go to source for his/her Personal Learning Network (PLN).  Take Twitter for example.  Now anyone who knows me knows that I absolutely love Twitter as a professional learning and networking tool. It has been and will continue to be my number one choice when it comes to learning in the foreseeable future. Twitter has many positive attributes, but also a growing number of negative aspects.  Some examples in my opinion, include an increasing amount of negativity and disrespect, rise in social media cliques, difficulty in following chats, noise, and overbearing opinions.  Even as Twitter still works great for me and others it is not the only player out there.  Nor should it be considered the best learning option for all. At times I just need to get away from the echo chamber to focus more on my learning."