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"The Elements in Action is not just a notable new iPad app - it's also one of those 'wow factor' apps that make us remember what the iPad is all about. The sort of app that just feels like the iPad is The perfect home for. It's a science focused app and I'm a guy who never especially enjoyed or exceled at science, but it has gripped me from the moment I opened it. I don't know my elements from my elbows, but I've now learned more about quite a few of them in just a short time with the app than I ever took in back in my school days."

"f there's a more complete note-taking app on the market than Notability, it's not readily apparent. The iPad offering from Ginger Labs is equally useful for stripped-down business uses or more complicated and playful creative efforts. "

"Until recently, Facebook had dominated the social media landscape among America's youth - but it is no longer the most popular online platform among teens, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. Today, roughly half (51%) of U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 say they use Facebook, notably lower than the shares who use YouTube, Instagram or Snapchat. This shift in teens' social media use is just one example of how the technology landscape for young people has evolved since the Center's last survey of teens and technology use in 2014-2015. Most notably, smartphone ownership has become a nearly ubiquitous element of teen life: 95% of teens now report they have a smartphone or access to one. These mobile connections are in turn fueling more-persistent online activities: 45% of teens now say they are online on a near-constant basis."

"A couple of months ago we featured a collection of some good iPad apps for music teachers. Today, upon the request of some of our readers here in EdTech and mLearning, we went ahead and curated for you this list of music apps specifically for Mac users. These are programs you can use in your Mac to do a wide variety of musical tasks including: create beats in different music styles; convert audio and video files to multiple audio formats; learn to play piano, guitar and  percussive drums; record, crop, effect and trim audio... and many more. For more options, check out the music section in Mac App Store. "

"This week the Featured section of the iPad App Store is full of even more highlighted app collections than usual. One of the notable app collections that caught my eye is 'Apps for Elementary School' - as I have a daughter in 4th grade."

"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."

"Reading and writing is a core skill that pervades all other school subjects. With the focus we see on STEM-related products, it is good to see so many emerging products with their sights on literacy too. Here are a handful of notable tools for literacy education."

"Editor's note:  Vicki Davis just wrote a new book called, Reinventing Writing. I asked her if she could contribute a post to The Innovative Educator explaining specifically how social media has reinvented writing. This is that post.   As hall of fame baseball player, Babe Ruth said, "Yesterday's home runs won't win tomorrow's games." To level up writing, we need to take advantage of the out-of-the park features and capabilities that social media inspired concepts give writing instruction. Most of us know how it feels to write an exciting Facebook status update or a powerful tweet. Without delay, we know the impact of our words as they are retweeted, commented on, and liked (or ignored.) With this in mind, it stands to reason that students want a response too. Paper essays that are only seen by the teacher with a wastebasket as their final destiny are a needless waste of time and potential. Writing can be so much more exciting and it isn't that hard to do. Notably, social media is impacting writing in the classroom in ten powerful ways. You don't have to be on social media (or even like it)  to feel the lift social media concepts can give writing in your classroom, as I share in my new book  Reinventing Writing released just this month."

"A few days back, we looked at five great ways to incorporate word cloud generators into your classroom. There are obviously many more uses out there for them - but that is a discussion for another post. We've mentioned most of these before - in a post from way back when - so I won't go into too much detail about each individual one, but we've added a few notable ones to the list. (Of note, the list is in no particular order)."

"Smarthistory is a free online alternative to expensive art history textbooks. Smarthistory features more than just images of notable works of art. The combination of video lessons, text articles, and audio lessons about eras and themes in art history is what makes Smarthistory a valuable resource. Students can browse all of the resources of Smarthistory by artist name, style of work, theme, or time period. Smarthistory was originally developed by art history professors Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker. Smarthistory is now partnered with Khan Academy to deliver lessons via video."

"For teachers, adding drama to their teaching and not limiting it to be used as a separate subject, can have notable benefits in the classroom. So, we thought we would compile some ways that educators can include teaching in and also outside of drama class. "

"The question of what creativity is and how it works will perhaps remain humanity's most unanswerable - but that hasn't stopped us from trying. On the heels of Neil Gaiman's recent reflection on the subject comes one from filmmaker Tiffany Shlain, founder of the Webby Awards and daughter of the great Leonard Shlain of Art & Physics fame. In this short installment from AOL's The Future Starts Here series, Shlain offers ten steps to the creative process based on her own experience in film and art, expanding, perhaps inadvertently, on Graham Wallace's famous 1926 model of the four stages of the creative process and incorporating other notable theories of yore, like John Dewey's emphasis on hunches and T.S. Eliot's insistence on idea-incubation."

"Since 2007, a diverse group of Pittsburgh's educators, funders, academics, and citizens-known as the Remake Learning Network-has emerged to exchange ideas and implement strategies to enhance the region's learning ecosystem. These efforts have provided the region's children and youth with novel, engaging, and relevant learning opportunities that help them thrive in school, college, and the workforce. Indeed, what began with small, informal discussions has blossomed into a full-fledged movement that is yielding notable results and earning national recognition. In the spirit of open innovation, the Network is building the Remake Learning Playbook, a field guide full of ideas and resources for supporting learning innovation networks. Filled with practical and actionable information to help other communities build on the Pittsburgh model for learning innovation."

A compelling historic interview with a notable figure each day, plus links to complete information about the subject. Interviews taken from renown historic sources such as The Paris Review, The Mike Wallace Interviews of the 1950s, the BBC, Charlie Rose, NPR

"t's clearly a book aimed at showing that the iPad is much more than just a device for 'consumption' and that it's a very capable tool for business users. The main sections cover topics like Access and Manage Documents, Powerful Presentations, Mobile Meetings Made Easy, Notable Notes, Convenient Collaborations, and Profile Snapshots."

"Great news for Mac users. The Mac OS X can add more options that can help you facilitate your work or just plain use it to do administrative work. For example, organizing files, or just putting in order a bunch of photos. Let's start. The option key right on your keyboard actually can uncover a plethora of hidden little known tricks on Mac OS X. Here are some of the most notable ones."

"ReadWorks is a free service that I have been recommending for about a year now. It provides teachers with hundreds of lesson plans and more than two thousand reading non-fiction and fiction passages aligned to Common Core standards. Recently, ReadWorks expanded again. The latest expansion includes poems and question sets. The collection is organized by grade level. In the collection you will find poems by Frost, Dickinson, Stevenson, and other notable poets. "

"It's been more than three years since Caine Monroy's elaborate cardboard arcade in front of his dad's used auto parts shop was catapulted to fame by Nirvan Mullick's short film. But last summer, after two years and tens-of-thousands of customers, Cain "retired" on his eleventh birthday and closed Caine's Arcade to the public. The last day was probably a first step for Caine, though. The film has been seen 8 million times and counting, and it has spun into a movement that's spawned numerous think pieces, a scholarship fund, and a TEDx talk. Most notably, it spurred the creation of the Imagination Foundation, which aims to find, foster, and fund creativity in kids through programs such as the Global Cardboard Challenge and pop-up learning spaces called Imagination Chapters."