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"Does your child have an iOS device (iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch) or access to your personal device? iOS devices have many security features that parents don't know about. You can use these features to help protect your child from accessing inappropriate content; guard your personal data on a shared device; and safeguard you from unexpected credit card bills due to unapproved app and itunes purchases. The following video explains how!"

"The summer is quickly winding down & a number of teachers will be returning to their classroom with new mobile devices (iPads). Throughout the summer I have been conducting workshops on iPad integration with EdTechTeacher and I thought it might be helpful to pull together a back to school list of apps structured around specific classroom goals. While many schools may already have an Apple VPP program already in place, I know a number of teachers will also be purchasing the apps themselves. Therefore, I will do my best to include both a pay & free app for each objective."

"Almost two years ago to the day, I wrote a post, "The iPad: Why Teachers Should Care." Flash forward to today, both of the schools I work at have purchased one iPad for each classroom. Although I've already mastered how to manage all the iDevices in my personal household, learning to manage iPads in an institutional environment involved a bit more learning due to the complexities of software licensing and the necessity to keep institutional accounts separate from personal ones."

"You can redownload and reinstall any previously purchased apps that have since been deleted from an iOS device, even if you deleted them a long time ago or never even installed them in the first place. Here is how:"

"I've replied many times to the question of purchasing a Mac vs Windows PC. I point out that value, not price, is the most important factor. The qualities of the Mac (and the shortcomings of Windows) frequently make the Mac the "value buy" in personal computers."

"Apple recently announced that they would make the iOS versions of their iWork apps plus iPhoto and iMovie free for iOS 7 enabled devices that were purchased after September 1. That means you can download Pages, Keynote, Numbers, iPhoto, and iMovie all for free. We've been getting lots of questions from many of you asking whether or not you qualify and if so, how to actually get your free apps. Here are your answers:"

"Lessons, ideas and resources related to MinecraftEDU. In November 2013, our school purchased 29 licenses of MinecraftEDU software to use in our Win7 computer lab."

"In the Spring of 2013, my school district committed to issuing an iPad to every classroom teacher. The purposes for this initiative were to give teachers an additional tool for teaching and learning and to familiarize teachers with mobile devices in anticipation of more iPads being purchased for classroom use and a grades 6-12 BYOD program coming in the next school year."

"Do you ever think an idea is just terrible, but you are forced to do it? Like this whole trend in education with all these devices being brought into schools, or in some cases, even purchased by the schools. As absurd as this may sound, it's happening people, and it's high time we take a stand and stop this madness. Now, something with this much momentum might be hard to derail, but I'd like to provide you with some tools necessary to sabotage a device initiative if you are having to lead one in your district."

Last year, we began a program that can best be described as "classroom modernization" across the district. Our Board of Education recognized the importance and education need for the modernization and made a commitment through its budget to support the purchase of technology to support the professionals in our classrooms. The first decision we made was to ensure all teaching staff had access to a current, mobile device. While often the focus is on ensuring all students have access to current devices (a continuing effort in our district) we realized that if we wanted classes to be engaging with digital tools, teachers needed to have access and feel comfortable with them as well."

"Last fall I wrote an ABC/25 Foundation grant through my district for the supplies for Green Screen Stop-Motion Animation Stations. My ideas for what to purchase evolved a bit with more research to include green display board from BLICK and iPad stands from Anker. We will have two stages of production. "

"The recent 3D printing explosion on the educational market has left many educators wondering how they can afford to integrate this technology into the classroom. Most schools do not have the luxury of purchasing a 3D printer but still want to provide the experience for their students. 3D pens made their debut on Kickstarter this year as an affordable 3D printing option. After the initial investment of the pens, they are an incredibly affordable tool for classrooms. The pens allow students to illustrate - in 3D - concepts in math, history, art, design, and chemistry, giving them a tangible means to explore complex ideas. The pens work as a manual operating 3D printer. Heated filament is extruded through the pen's tip, which quickly cools down to form a stable 3D structure. It actually adopts the same FDM technology which powers mainstream desktop 3D printers. The human ergonomic design allows students to draw an infinite variety of shapes and items, on both the 2D plane and within 3D free space."

"Yesterday was a Flex Day in our district, so my teaching partner and I had a very small group of first grade students to do some very focused instruction. It was a great day, but was made even better through a mid-morning surprise! Our kiddos discovered that both classroom's praying mantis egg sacs had hatched new baby praying mantises! We were so excited, and disappointed at the same time, because not everyone was there to see it! We needed to set them free quickly because they can actually eat each other if you don't get them a food source quickly enough. I suggested that we try out the Book Creator app, since it's on my "To Purchase" list for school iPads, to document our investigation and release."

"It seems tablets are in more classrooms, in more districts, each day. But as experience shows, simply purchasing and distributing tablets doesn't mean students will be more engaged with their learning, and it doesn't guarantee teachers will embrace tech-enabled instruction. Implementing tablets and leveraging the tools to support teaching and learning goals might be easier with the right approach, according to Doug Fisher, professor of educational leadership at San Diego State University and teacher leader at Health Sciences High; Nancy Frey, professor of educational leadership at San Diego State University and teacher leader at Health Sciences High; and Alex Gonzales, technology leader at Health Sciences High. These three educators have devised a model they call the gradual release of responsibility (GRR) model, which imparts both instructional strategies and technology tips for educators planning for, deploying, and integrating tablets into classrooms."

"  With mobile devices being integrated into special needs classrooms, it's tempting to want an app for everything, including every IEP goal and objective.  By doing this, however, educators and parents can easily overlook the full range of possibilities for tablet devices.  Rather than looking at a single subject app, there is amazing potential for apps that focus on consumption, curation and creativity.  These types of apps grow with your students, rather than your student "outgrowing" the app.  In choosing curation and creativity apps, you don't lose money by purchasing "disposable" apps, which are only good as long as the student needs practice on a very specific objective or goal.  Once that short-term objective has been attained, the app is no longer useful for the student.  So, what types of apps grow with your students?  There are many, but here are just a few. "

"Nowadays, kids want to use smartphones. Of course, most parents aren't willing to actually buy their kids a device, but plenty have no problem letting them play with one. Of course, when a child uses a cell phone they can potentially be exposed to all kinds of dangerous things that aren't meant for young eyes. But the risks aren't just for the children, but they can affect you, the parents, too. Kids could make unwanted in-app purchases, make calls to people you don't want to talk to, they could even share photos you don't want the world to see, and they can do plenty of other bad things. So what can you do? Check out the infographic below for the answers."

"We've done the dirty work, testing and scrutinizing the best smartphones, tablets, laptops, smartwatches and fitness trackers to take the guesswork out of your next gadget purchase. But our work is never done. Every month, we'll update the Engadget Buyer's Guide with the latest and greatest gadgets for every budget and lifestyle."

"When we started our 1:1 planning in Burlington more than five years ago, the first thing we did was involve our students on the planning team. The input of our students helped put so many things in perspective for the planning team and saved us time and money. We saved time because instead of speculating about what students may or may not do with new mobile devices they would be receiving, we had students tell us firsthand what to expect. They saved us money because when we were talking about which case we should by for each of the more than 1,000 iPads that we would be purchasing, one of the students told us not to by cases. He told us that the students would take them off and buy their own cases and that we would be wasting our money."

"I have been making printed versions of books made with Book Creator on an iPad for many years. The app produces a really decent file for hard copy printing. First thing to realise is that your video and sound files won't work on paper. I know that sounds silly but people sometimes get upset when they first realise this. What you do get is a paper book which looks like it was purchased from a bookstore - it looks so professional."

"Computer programming has become the new "literacy" that many teachers and school districts are implementing to help students exercise critical thinking and problem solving skills. Students of all ages gravitate towards creating and implementing programs--large and small--that they create digitally. Our technology department recently purchased two MaKey MaKeys for every elementary ITRT to use when collaborating with teachers on special projects that involve computer programming. "