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"Higher education issues have been one of the hot topics of the current presidential race, with candidates touching on reducing student loan debt and improving college access. However, what has rarely come up is whether or not college is even the best option for each and every student. The general message in popular culture and political debates is that attending and graduating from a traditional four-year college is the only way to find a fruitful job after high school. However, there are a number of alternatives for students who don't necessarily want to take out loans or the academic focus of a traditional university experience, and these alternatives can still lead to fulfilling careers. Called career technical, professional, and trade or vocational training, these programs are typically offered at high schools, two-year colleges, and through other outlets."

""I keep reading about these design thinking consultants who will come to your school and help you redesign your programming. But to be honest, those things are way too expensive, and our budget doesn't really allow us flexibility for that. Please, please give us some cheaper options. Can we just do it ourselves? Are there good people to talk to or places online to go for stuff?"--Broke in Cincinnati"

"This summer, Apple will introduce an addition to its usual Apple Camp program: a coding course for children ages 8 to 12. Besides its usual interactive storytelling and iMovie classes, kids will have the option to enroll in Coding Games and Programming Robots. The class will use Tynker's software to teach the basics of coding using blocks that can animate characters and move robots. In May, Tynker raised $7.1 million in funding."

As Zac notes in this article, which he wrote spontaneously on his "Bring Your Own Device" while at school, many teachers have been reluctant to allow technology into their classrooms, even if they have that option. Zac suggests it's a trust issue - teachers don't trust students and students decline to demonstrate that they're trustworthy because they feel they are being denied access to what (to them) is a tool for everyday learning in the real world

"For the iPad there is a great timer/stopwatch app called Minu Timer. This universal free app needs no instructions (although it does include a start up 'how to use' page appearing on your first launch). The interface is simple and the user experience proves that a well written app will let users jump right in and get started. A lack of buttons and excessive tuning options keeps things uncluttered and removes the need to tap through to layers of screens."

"I took a look at the free iOS app News360 more than a year ago and found it interesting and useful. The idea behind the app was to show you lots of different takes on a story, so you could see the subject covered from many different points of view. A new iPad version features a revamped interface, new social features and an option to more closely target your interests."

Mentor texts in our classrooms could open up students' possibilities to these decisions-the options they have as writers. They can see that they are the decision makers and that multi-media requires creators of digital text to make many decisions so that their messages are clear and powerful.  Rather than be formulaic, I want my students' mentors to be pieces that open up what is possible in their own work.

"The new Skitch design embodies the application's purpose of helping you communicate your ideas quickly and easily. We focused on making things simpler, highlighting exactly the shapes, colors and options you need in order to get things done. It's this restraint that makes Skitch so easy to use, and so deceptively powerful."

"I just noticed that it has been a year since my last list of iPad apps for teaching music. Several new interesting music apps have seen the light since then and therefore I decided to create another more comprehensive list of some of the best iPad apps for teaching music to give music teachers more options to choose from."

"There are times when taking a note in a written format is not a practical option. You might for instance be attending a lecture or a conference or you might simply prefer to listen to your recorded notes instead of reading them, in these cases apps such as the ones below are what you will use for audio note taking. While keeping the basic note taking features, all of these apps are fantastic for recording notes and adding audio to your notes. I invite you to check out the selection I have below and share with us what you thin about it."

"When I looked deeper into the site, I saw a few interesting things. First of all, the site is growing and growing, and pretty soon you will be able to learn about what you want. From "art" to "home and garden", there are a lot of options for a site that I am assuming that not many people know about. Some are free, and some you pay for, but the interesting thing is that if you wanted to learn to play the guitar, you may pay $60 an hour, but there is also travel time, travel cost, and other elements. Many will look at that and choose to stay at home and learn in their pajamas."

"Screenshots are a useful, if not essential, skill for both students and teachers to have, but with so many devices out there, it can be hard to remember how to take a screenshot on an iPad, a Chromebook, a Mac or whatever else you might be using in your classroom. So, here is a quick rundown of all the native methods to do this, as well as a couple of recommendations for third-party services that will give you even more options."

"Imagine students' artwork hanging in your school's hallway and beside each masterpiece is a QR code. When parents, students, and other teachers scan the code using a mobile device, they hear the student telling about themselves and the relevance of their art… Or what about a QR code in the back of a library book that allows you to hear a student's review of the book? Or a QR code sent home to parents that allows them to listen to their 1st grader reading or telling a story? Sounds difficult, doesn't it? Well, don't worry - it really isn't hard at all! I'll give you two options for recording the audio files and will show you a couple of ways to "embed" them into QR codes."

"OpenEd.io is a free service that launched in October of 2013 for the purpose of offering a huge catalog of educational videos, games, and assessments. One of the services OpenEd.io offers is the option for teachers to create courses and collections of resources to share with their students. This week OpenEd released a free iPad app for teachers and students. "

"While some classrooms are lucky enough to have iPads available for each student, many classrooms only have one or two. With one iPad and over twenty students who are excited to use it, we have to find ways to use it efficiently. There are a variety of ways to do this and many apps to support each option. Just one iPad can be an engaging and effective learning tool in any classroom! "

"If for any reasons you do not want to upload your classroom videos to YouTube and are looking for another free hosting video that can allow you to upload and share your videos Google Drive is one of your best options. Only few Google Drive users know that there is a functionality in Google Drive that enables anyone with a Google Drive account to instantly upload their videos and after the upload you can get an embed code to integrate your video anywhere on the web. Here is how you can do it."

"Pearltrees is a service that combines social bookmarking with mind-mapping. Using Pearltrees you can bookmark websites and arrange your bookmarks into webs or mindmaps of related topics. Recently, Pearltrees added the option for users to upload files use in their mindmaps. Users can arrange and share their files just like they can with any other Pearltrees mindmap. Pearltrees can be used in your web browser or through the free Pearltrees iOS and Android apps."

If you need something short and sharp to convince decision makers on why it should be iPad and not an alternative, this poster might help. Laptops and Chromebooks make excellent business tools for those writing documents, sending emails and using Skype (not available for Chromebook) but for creative options in schools, it still has to be iPad.