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""Why does this matter?" Teachers are often called upon to answer this question about an academic subject, and computer science instructors may face this demand more frequently than most. Learning to write lines of code can seem, to many students, like a pointless exercise in tedium. But a few professors of computer science have a compelling reply at the ready. They are participants in the Humanitarian Free and Open Source Software project, known as HFOSS-or, more grandly, Software for Humanity. Why does this matter? these professors might respond. Because it's helping to feed needy people in Haiti, or to deliver supplies to earthquake survivors in China, or to manage the medical care of malaria victims in Rwanda."

"Harvard education specialist Tony Wagner has been advocating that we reinvent the education system to promote innovation for years. He's clear that content should no longer be at the center of school. Instead, he says a teacher's main job should be to help students develop key skills necessary for when they leave school. He contends there are seven essential things young people need to be successful lifelong learners:"

A listing of social networks used in educational environments or for educational purposes. Please add to this list (alphabetical by category and within categories).

A listing of social networks used in educational environments or for educational purposes. Please add to this list (alphabetical by category and within categories).

Alamo Heights Independent School District recently changed its policy to allow students to bring personal electronic devices - laptops, iPads and smart phones - to use for educational purposes at the discretion of the teacher. It's backing that policy change with content-filtered, districtwide Wi-Fi access for such devices.

CORE Education is a not for profit educational research, development and implementation organisation in New Zealand. CORE aims to provide educators with the quality professional learning opportunity in an online context. Centre4 acts as the portal to this e-learning world and you are welcome to explore it in the areas that interest you. While many communities are open to the wider public, some areas have restricted access for project participants. Their purposes are indicated below.

The Marine Photobank is a leading visual resource that has galvanized people from all over the planet to collect, share and download marine photos, images and graphics that shed light on how humans have affected life in the ocean. The Marine Photobank was founded in response to a lack of readily available, high quality underwater and above water ocean conservation images. These images are available at no cost for non-commercial purposes as well as for media use.

Behind the rhetoric and politics, education is about the outcomes it achieves for its learners. More than being about the nuances of technology, learning space design, curriculum structures and pedagogical practices schools should have effective answers to questions that focus on what they hope to achieve for their learners. How we answer this question should then dictate the measures we utilise to achieve these goals and it is to these ends that we must apply our efforts.

We rely on an assessment measure without taking a close look at what it is measuring and we obfuscate the information we need to evaluate the utility of these measures by reducing the results to numerical values.

"Ultimately, one question always arises. "There's so many apps on the ipad - just how do you expect me to learn it all!!" Here's my quick answer: Don't! While it is important to attach deeper understanding to specific apps for specific purposes, sometimes the introduction can be offered within a framework of "discovery learning". For those of you who have access to an ipad cart or a group of iPads, here's an introductory process for both you and your class:"

"The following collection of writings review various mobile applications (mobile apps) that could have potential for purposeful teaching and learning. These specific mobile apps were selected for use by teachers and students in relation to the Grade 12 Global Issues: Citizenship and Sustainability (40S). The curriculum for this course was recently designed by Manitoba Education. Implementation is voluntary for the the 2012-2013 school year and set for full mandatory implementation in 2013-2014."

"Within Parkland School Division, our mission is stated as the following: Our purpose is to prepare, engage and inspire our students to be their best in a quickly changing global community. As there was a lot of work to create this mission with our stakeholders and community , I looked deeply at the work that I do as the Division Principal of Innovative Teaching and Learning and how we could help make this mission come to life. As there are often overarching vision, mission, and value statements, it is essential that we look at these areas and break them down into more achievable "chunks". It is important we define "why" we do the work, but it is also important to bring these statements to life as well."

"However, here in Educational Technology and Mobile Learning we have a particular focus on iOS apps that work on iPad and we have been featuring some great learning apps pertaining to different subject matters, from Math to Arts and Drawing . Our purpose is to help educators put their hands on the proper educational apps to use with students. We have also compiled another list of new learning apps which you can check below :"

"So you are looking for some new apps to recommend for your students and kids, well I just finished curating a list of some awesome iPad apps for you. I am adding this list to the educational iPad apps section I have here in Educational Technology and Mobile Learning. These apps cover a wide variety of topics and can be used for different purposes. From presentation making to creating engaging drawings and doodles, you will definitely find an app to recommend to your students. Enjoy"

"A couple of days ago Educational Technology and Mobile Learning published a post featuring two awesome web tools for teachers to create stop motion videos and following this article I received some requests to feature iPad apps for creating motion videos. I have curated the list below containing some of the best and most popular apps for this purpose. Check them out and if you have other suggestions , please share them with us in the comment form below. "

"Students need our guidance to use virtual platforms for ACADEMIC purposes. We can't rely on their "so called" native status to know how and what to do. Just a few years ago, no one had heard of "backchanneling", nowadays, it has become main stream (although most people might not associate the term "backchannel" and "backchanneling" with something they might be familiar with."

"I received an email from an agricultural education colleague in another district inquiring about potential iPad testing apps to to use which also handle scoring. I figured rather than just send her an email, I'd share the three apps I use for assessment purposes with pros and cons of each. All I mention are FREE."