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"You're spending an afternoon browsing the exhibits at an art museum. If you're anything like me, you'd probably appreciate the art a lot more if you could bring someone along that could explain the history and nuances of the pieces on display. Now imagine pointing a device at the painting and seeing it morph into a dynamic video giving you all the information you wanted about the art. Welcome to augmented reality. Virtual reality replaces the real world with an artificial, digital environment. In contrast, augmented reality alters your view of the real world by layering it with associated digital information. Augmented reality uses your device's camera to view the immediate environment and display media when it sees an object it recognizes. It has been utilized as a marketing and informational tool by many industries. Using an augmented reality app, you can point your device at an advertisement in a magazine and get detailed product demonstrations. Aim it at a sign outside a house for sale and get an after hours virtual walk-through the property. There are also many ways augmented reality can be used in education."

"The science is clear: If you get kids moving throughout the school day, they will do better academically. That's the case being made in the article "Building a better brain" just published in the Globe and Mail. The article quotes Harvard Medical School's John Ratey, an internationally recognized expert in neuropsychiatry: If you want to raise test scores, we have documented evidence - big time evidence - that the key is to include fitness-based activity in the day. Not only do schools need to start incorporating physical activity into every school day, they need to make sure that their students are physically literate, so they have the skills necessary to participate and enjoy that activity. And we know that kids who are physically literate have the confidence to move and will seek out opportunities to be physically active."

"Educators have learned much about the benefits of using projects for learning, and collaboration is easily recognized as an important skill for students to build. There are very few arguments against having students work together in class and on assignments. However, the challenge facing many educators is not in wanting their students to work together, but in figuring out how to group students together in the most effective ways. We do not want to create groups that hinder the progress of any of our students! This simple guide can help you the next time you are creating groups for an assignment or task in your classroom!"

"Adding game mechanics to your classroom doesn't have to be complicated. Digital badges are a great way to get started with gamification. Recognize learning achievements in your classroom with badges to motivate and challenge students to reach the next level. (Tip: Badges are also very motivating for teachers!) There are several different approached to using badges in the classroom. Some websites and apps are strictly for creating and awarding badges, and some, more robust systems offer badges within their system. The following resources are just a start for those that are new to gamification, and all are iPad-friendly. I've included links and related resources as well."

"I was honored to serve on the Best Apps for Teaching and Learning Committee this year. Over the course of the year we tested hundreds of contenders and selected a list of 25 apps "best of the best" for the Committee's third list. Our committee vetted apps in five categories connected to AASL's learning standards and in support of our instructional roles relating to inquiry-based teaching and learning.  The Committee recognized free and cost effective apps that foster the qualities of innovation, creativity, active participation, and collaboration and are user friendly to encourage a community of learners to explore and discover. Here are those fabulous apps with tips for their use in your schools and libraries: Books Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) Organization & Management Social Sciences Content Creation"

"School and district leaders that are thinking about personalizing education tell us one of their top concerns is how to train, support, and develop teachers effectively to teach in ways that may feel new and unfamiliar.  As former educators we agree that this is crucial, and are happy that they recognize the challenge and are ready to take it on. First and foremost, in order to support the teachers we are asking to teach in blended learning environments we have to understand the implications on teaching practice.  Over the past three years, we've worked with thousands of teachers tackling the question of how to personalize learning in their classrooms and we've gathered a set skills into 5 domains of blended learning teaching that we believe are new skills to master for veteran and novice teachers alike. This five-domain rubric was created, not for evaluation purposes (there are enough evaluation rubrics out there!), but for teachers to be able to self-assess, set goals and progress.  In the same way, we want blended learning to allow for students to have a better understanding of their own strengths and weaknesses, we want teachers to be able to identify blended specific skills and better understand their own strengths and areas for growth.  We wanted to give teachers, their coaches, and their leaders, a sense of what to strive for, and help them plot a path to get there through aligned professional development.  We also found that the teachers we work with cherish the opportunity to self-reflect, identify the skills they have and the skills they need, and take the time to set goals around where they want to shift their practice.  Many of our schools infuse these concepts into community of practices discussions for continuous learning."

"Homework: effective learning tool or waste of time? Since the average high school student spends almost seven hours each week doing homework, it's surprising that there's no clear answer. Homework is generally recognized as an effective way to reinforce what students learn in class, but claims that it may cause more harm than good, especially for younger students, are common. Here's what the research says:"

"Like myself, other students with learning difficulties-from dysgraphia (a difficulty with writing, mainly in spelling) and attention disorders like ADD and ADHD-respond well to visual or tactile learning and activities that allow physical participation, according to the U.S. Department of Education. And these learning impediments are not as uncommon as you might imagine. In the US alone, approximately eight percent of children were identified by a health professional as having a learning disorder, according to a 2014 study. As these types of difficulties become more recognized every day, the importance of adjusting teaching methods has started to increase accordingly."

"Art has long been recognized as an important part of a well-rounded education - but when it comes down to setting budget priorities, the arts rarely rise to the top. Many public schools saw their visual, performing and musical arts programs cut completely during the last recession, despite the many studies showing that exposure to the arts can help with academics too. A few schools are taking the research to heart, weaving the arts into everything they do and finding that the approach not only boosts academic achievement but also promotes creativity, self-confidence and school pride."

"Visual content is a powerful tool. As children, we learn to recognize visual cues before we learn to speak or write. We're wired to rely on these cues to understand the world and to use visual content to communicate our thoughts and feelings. Teachers can integrate graphic design into their classrooms to facilitate instruction and to prepare students for success. Here are four ways teachers are using visual content already. Try them and discover how visual content can positively impact teaching and learning. "

"According to Code.org, 90 percent of U.S. schools are not teaching any computer science. Eyebrows were raised in 2013 as the U.K. passed a plan to educate every child how to code. In 2014, Barack Obama made history as the first U.S. president to program a computer. Yet critics claim that often only the more affluent schools offer computer science courses, thus denying minorities potential to learn the skills required by the 1.4 million new jobs that will be created during the next ten years. In my opinion, parents of every student in every school at every level should demand that all students be taught how to code. They don't need this skill because they'll all go into it as a career -- that isn't realistic -- but because it impacts every career in the 21st century world. Any country recognizing that will benefit in the long term. Here's how you can start. With the following resources, you can teach programming with every student and every age."

"Although instructional design as a discipline has been around for decades (and probably was at its height in the 1970's and 1980's as a profession, its application and use has diminished in the age of easy to use software and access to and use of Internet. This is partly because it is so easy to create a course of almost any type, add as many "bells and whistles" as you like and then widely distribute it to a given audience. But in paying less attention to instructional design than we should we have lost something important and it is therefore high time we recognized that it is more important than ever in the modern world. After all, instructional design is the approach which helps to keep the process of training, coaching or development of any kind (on or off line) to be well-targeted and on track to meet the needs of the individual(s) at which it is aimed. Good instructional design therefore needs to appreciate that we are open to learning but find the best ways and moments to intervene in which to package it or parcel it up so that it can be successfully delivered. Although the approach is relatively straightforward, there is a best-practice way to conduct effective instructional design and this is shown in the 10-step infographic shown below:"

"The internationally recognized WorldImages database provides access to the California State University IMAGE Project. It has just been selected by the Library of Congress for inclusion in its historic collection of Internet materials. It contains approximately 80,000 images, is global in coverage and includes all areas of visual imagery. WorldImages is accessible anywhere and its images may be freely used for non-profit educational purposes. The images can be located using many search techniques, and for convenience they are organized into over 800 portfolios which are then organized into subject groupings"

Today's classrooms are diverse and inclusive by nature. Differentiation of instruction and assessment and the principles of universal design are now recognized practices for teachers. Both differentiation and universal design provide systematic approaches to setting goals, choosing or creating flexible materials and media, and assessment. To undertake differentiation and universal design, teachers need to be aware of a range of accommodations (multiple means of representation, of expression, and/or of engagement) that may be necessary to help each student in the classroom succeed. These accommodations may take the form of adaptations and/or modifications

"Teacher Guides: Can You Trust the News? How to Teach Students to Recognize Good Journalism"

"This 49-page digital graphic novel is based on Book 1 of the award-winning Middle School Confidential series written by nationally recognized teen expert and anti-bullying activist Annie Fox, M.Ed., and illustrated by Harvey award winner Matt Kindt. This is a native iPad app, designed specifically for the iPad screen. The Be Confident in Who You Are app is available for download on the iTunes App Store."

"1). Your students need you to recognize and accept that the world they are growing up in is quite different than the world you grew up in. As a result, classroom instruction and learning must be and should be different than what may have happened in the past."

"You've just downloaded Yosemite, Apple's latest update to the Mac platform. There's a lot that's familiar, but a number of features still look, feel, and function differently. If you haven't already been using the public beta, it can be a lot to take in. Lucky for you, we've got a primer. We've selected 10 Yosemite features that will change the way you use your Mac. Some you may recognize, particularly if you've followed our previous Yosemite coverage, but now that Yosemite and iOS 8 are live for all, there are a few more features Apple's rolled out."

"Osmo was created by young parents and encourages social interaction by expanding interaction with games to the area in front of an iPad. It does this by providing a white stand and a red mirror that works with iPad and iPad mini. The reflector lets the front-facing camera recognize what is placed in front of iPad. Something to know is that iPad must be removed from any case in order to fit into the stand."

Digital audiobooks can be purchased online including Audible, eMusic, and iTunes. iTunes keeps audiobooks separate from your music library so as to make them easier to find. Also, it allows you to adjust the playback speed of the file as well as resume from the previously played chapter where it left. Just by tuning few settings, you can ready your iTunes and iPod to recognize any audio file or group of audio files as an audiobook.