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"Make Beliefs Comix is a free multilingual comic strip creation tool that I've featured many times over the years on Free Technology for Teachers. Recently, Make Beliefs Comix released an updated iPad app for creating comic strips. The best feature of the app is that it supports the creation of comics in seven languages; English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Latin."

"December saw the second full month of IE11 availability with Windows 8.1, the release of Firefox 26, and the first full month of Chrome 31 availability. The latest numbers from Net Applications show IE11 tripled its market share, although only all versions of Chrome managed to gain share overall last month."

"The Mac had a great year in 2013, with powerful new Macs on both the portable and desktop side, and the release of OS X Mavericks, which has been easily one of the best major updates to the Mac operating system in years. Here are thirteen of our favorite tip and tricks articles focusing on the Mac from the year past. From newbie tips to expert tricks, they may not have been the most popular but you're sure to learn something new regardless of your knowledge level. "

"2013 was a big year for iOS, seeing the release of several new iPads, iPhones, and perhaps most noticeable of all, iOS 7 and it's dramatic interface overhaul. To wrap up the year, we're going to offer a roundup of our thirteen favorite articles on iOS and it's accompanying devices. No, these certainly weren't the most popular articles published by OSXDaily, but because they're mostly tips lists and collections, they're all knowledge-packed with tons of information that is sure to teach everyone something new."

"iOS 7.1 is out today and you can update your iPad by heading over to Settings -> General -> Software Update. This dot update marks the biggest and bug-fixinest improvement to iOS since the release of iOS 7 last year. The major features you'll likely notice immediately are:"

"Apple has released the latest update to GarageBand, an app with touch instruments and a full featured recording studio."

"Kathleen Cushman, author of Fires in the Mind (and Edcamper!), has done countless studies on motivation and engagement. In many ways, her findings echo Daniel Pink's work in his text, Drive. Kathleen has just released a FREE eBOOK called The Motivation Equation. In the brief text, she describes design methodology that will help ignite students' passions. It's definitely worth a look!"

"While critical thinking is a foundation rather than a brick, how you build that foundation depends on the learning process itself: exposing students to new thinking and promoting interaction with that thinking in a gradual release of responsibility approach. Question stems can be a powerful part of that process no matter where the learner is. Assessment (pre-assessment, self-assessment, formative and summative assessment), prompting and cueing during discussion, etc. In that light, the following 25+ question stems (we found on Kris McElroy's pinterest board) framed around the early, non-revised Bloom's Taxonomy are worth a gander."

"Professional Learning Board just released a Self-study iPads in the Classroom course I wrote. It is a self-directed course to take in your own time and at your own speed."

"I love TED talks and I always look forward for their new releases. You can learn as deep and profound insights from these talks as when reading a non-fiction book. I know we all have our time constraints that would not allow us to sit in front of an iPad or computer for 20 minutes watching a talk but there is always snatches of time to do it particularly in the weekends. Create a list of what to watch , as I do, and bookmark the talks that interest you and watch them later when you have time."

"FYI: Apple officially released iOS7, the latest operating system for the iPhone and iPad, on September 18. Almost simultaneously, Stanford began offering a course teaching students how to design apps in the new environment. Although the course is still in progress, the initial video lectures are now available online, you guessed it, on iTunesU. This course, along with other top-flight coding courses, appears in the Computer Science section of our big collection of 775 Free Online Courses, where you'll also find courses on Philosophy, History, Physics and other topics."

"With the recent release of the new version of iMovie, my colleague Matt Przybylski (tech coordinator at our school) created this presentation for part two of our iPad workshop series. (Check out part one, iPad filming tips here) i"

"Google Drive-formerly Google Docs-has come quite a way in nearly a decade of existence. Originally launched as Writely, a startup's clever collaborative word processor, Google quickly acquired the app, changed the name to Google Docs, and released it as a new way to help people work together more efficiently using little more than a browser. "

"A recently released Pew Research study shows that young people (age 16-29) are reading more than many people think they are, and that much of what they read nowadays is on a screen rather than on paper. Most of these young people who read using a screen read on their phones or their computers rather than on eReaders."

"Google has recently released several updates to some of its major services including its search functionality. Being the top search engine on the web, Google is trying hard to sophisticate the way it filters and respond to users search queries through including some important features like customization, personalization, and localization. Google has also been investing in the power of social media particularly its tool Google Plus to recommend search results to searchers. Whether this is the beginning of a social revolution in web searching is too early to answer."

Every year the New Media Consortium (NMC), in partnership with the Educause Learning Initiative, release a series of reports for different education sectors on key trends, significant challenges and important developments recognized in the fields of education. "The eleventh edition will describe annual findings from the NMC Horizon Project, a more than decade-long research project designed to identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have an impact on learning, teaching, and creative inquiry in higher education. Six emerging technologies will be identified across three adoption horizons over the next one to five years, as well as key trends and significant challenges expected to continue over the same period, giving campus leaders and practitioners a valuable guide for strategic technology planning.""

"Today Google released two standalone apps for Google Docs and Google Sheets. They are available for iOS and Android, and perhaps most exciting of all, another new app for Slides is on its way. So, how are they different to the iOS Drive app? Let's find out."

"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."

"It's almost fall again, and so Apple has released the next generation of software that powers its mobile lineup: iOS 8. As always, this is a free update, and it packs new features and enhancements, both obvious and subtle. "

"Google has several officially released apps that teachers (and anyone else) can use on their iPads. All of these apps are available for free download from the iTunes app store. Recently,  Shake Up Learning published this wonderful infographic where she featured some useful Google apps for iPad. As is the case with all the visuals she shares, this graphic sums up the most essential Google apps every teacher should be aware of. These apps are arranged into 7 main categories:"