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"Apple didn't include SD Card slots or other expansion options in its iPods or iPhones, and pretty much ruled out third-party storage accessories. With nearly 350,000 apps and counting, the iPhone's maximum capacity of 32GB doesn't allow you to even scratch the surface of the App Store's catalog. Thanks to the Kingston for their most recent innovations of new Wi-Drive."

The best "PG" guide to the internet. Cool Like Pie is the brainchild of two internet-loving teachers. We collect all the coolest stuff to make you laugh and make you think. Appropriate for ages 9-99. Our mission is to provide a fun website for anyone 9 or older without corporate sponsorship. We keep it clean by following these 4 rules: #1-No Hatred #2-No Violence #3-No funny business (wink wink) #4- no foul language

"I've had many failures this year (which I will be outlining in some near future posts, I promise), but one message I definitely seemed to get across to my students was that I am done with ho-hum slide presentations that make everyone yawn. A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned the awesome presentation that some of my 4th graders did recently. This past week, we had some great ones from my 5th graders. My consistent theme this year, when it comes to Genius Hour presentations, has been The Golden Rule. If you wouldn't want people standing in front of you for 20 minutes reading slides to you in a monotone, then why on earth would you subject your classmates to the same torture? I haven't outlawed slide shows, but I've shown the students that they are ineffective unless you are a passionate speaker with engaging slides. After I gave them a peek at 101 Ways to Show What You Know, things got a lot more interesting."

"You know those grammar errors that students make in second grade ... and third grade ... and are still making in high school? Here are 10 lesson ideas that just might make the grammar rules stick, by WeAreTeachers blogger Erin Bittman. This is the fifth post in the Teaching Young Writers blog series sponsored by Zaner-Bloser's Strategies for Writers."

"Minecraft is one of those rare games that both educators endorse and kids love to play. Maybe it's the cubic heads, the flying pigs, or just the ability to create anything you want, it has hit the sweet spot between education and fun. So, what is the best way to start playing Minecraft and take advantage of this wonderful exception to the 'edutainment' rule? Well, lucky for you there are a LOT of different options! Here are 17 of the most popular:"

"Classroom technologies such as smartphones, tablets, computers, and wireless internet access offer exciting opportunities to enhance and deepen the learning process. However, using technology in the classroom can also bring multiple distractions to students. Without your proactive supervision, students might access games, web pages, and social networking sites as you deliver instruction. As an educator, how can you confront this dilemma? Read on to learn the various ways on how you can minimize the digital distraction in your classroom. Digital tech rules and regulations"

"Consider these words from Peter Gray, author of "Free to Learn: Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier, More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life:" Free play is nature's means of teaching children that they are not helpless. In play, away from adults, children really do have control and can practice asserting it. In free play, children learn to make their own decisions, solve their own problems, create and abide by rules, and get along with others as equals rather than as obedient or rebellious subordinates. Peter Gray's words remind me of danah boyd's descriptions and analysis of the over-scheduled lives of teens in her recent book, "It's Complicated: the social lives of networked teens.""

"It doesn't take a lot of digging to find free media online, but more often than not, although these assets may be free to view and often download, copyright and licensing rules can put some pretty heavy restrictions on using them. This is where sites like the Public Domain Project can be of huge value, providing easy and searchable access to media files that are completely free of all known copyright restrictions. And that's about as free as free gets on the modern web."

"Ever wonder why you can't figure out when and where to stick a comma? It's probably because commas, by far, have more rules and applications than any other punctuation mark. But why do so many people use the semicolon incorrectly? Comparatively, it should be one of the easiest punctuation marks to master. And why doesn't anybody seem to use the en dash?"

When is it cheating? When is it collaboration? This thoughtful article from Common Sense Media provides fine advice for parents (or teachers) on how to talk to kids about digital media and ethics.  

"Over the past couple of weeks I have shared two of Elise Gravel's wonderful non fiction children's books on disgusting critters. We have read The Slug and The Rat. After reading The Rat, and knowing that Elise is on twitter I asked my students if they wanted to tweet her and tell her what they thought about her book. To no surprise the answer was YES! Since I teach a combined grade one and two class I started by modelling how to tweet with the entire class. I ask my grade one students what they wanted to say to her and I typed their tweets as they spoke them. In the process I modelled how a tweet is written and what we needed to include in a tweet. With a few tweets sent, my grade two students were encouraged to tweet to her too while I worked with some of my grade one students. Of course, the rules never change, and I saw each tweet before it went live. Actually one tweet did sneak out without my eyes but it was quickly brought to my attention. This tweeting provided my students an authentic opportunity for writing. "

"Wikipedia is the seventh most-popular website on the Internet and is the web's most popular and largest reference resource. Many instructors decry student reliance on this online encyclopedia open to anyone to edit, but I am part of a growing movement of teachers who integrates student editing of Wikipedia pages into our pedagogy. There are many pedagogical reasons for this; integrating Wikipedia editing into your courses teaches students to navigate the rules and social norms of an online community of knowledge creation, trains them in developing responsible public-facing research, and introduces them to ways of dealing with a variety of responses to their work."

""You've got to know the rules to break them." Says McQueen. In my role, this means two things: It means that you are never asking teachers to do anything other than teach in the ways that they know work and inspire their students. You are simply giving them additional options. It means that you need to train up teachers to be confident with technology - if they know what they can do, then there is a choice of they do with that knowledge"

"'ve been reading a powerful new resource titled Beyond Pizzas & Pies, by Julie McNamara and Meghan M. Shaughnessy.  They describe fraction sense this way: Fraction sense implies a deep and flexible understanding of fractions that is not dependent on any one context or type of problem.  Fraction sense is tied to common sense: Students with fraction sense can reason about fractions and don't apply rules and procedures blindly; nor do they give nonsensical answers to problems involving fractions."

"Ask any educator, and they've probably at least heard of flipping the classroom. There are articles for days about the benefits and rewards to be reaped from flipping. Plenty of teachers have given it a go, or at least considered it. Too many teachers have ruled it out on account of their students' lack of access. It's true that our students come from all walks of life. We see the ones with the new Jordans or the latest iPhone, and their peers wearing the old hand-me-down sweater. All of them are our future. All of them are entitled to the best education possible. Only some of them are equipped with the means to achieve their fullest potential. Believe it or not, flipping the classroom can actually help close this gap. If only the gap weren't the main reason educators choose not to flip in the first place. So how can we reach kids who don't have consistent access?"

"I must confess: I am a coder. I like to create and build through computer programming. I find it engages a special part of my brain and calms me when I need a break of administrative or educational work. In fact, I used to code for Microsoft. I also teach coding and I love that coding teaches them to grow as analytical thinkers and problem solvers. In short, I am a big proponent for learning how to code. What has struck most of late is just how universal coding has become as a connector of people. When I first played around with the topic for this post, I considered titling it as, "Coding is a Universal Language," but a set of colleagues corrected me. Coding does not follow the rules of common languages; it exceeds them. Coding ties people together from all backgrounds and ages with the universal concepts of planning, creativity, design, and development. It is both constructive and destructive, fueling collaboration in some and isolation in others. What I challenge readers to think about is finding any part of modern society that is not touched in some way by coding? Think of any social or political event of the past 25 years that didn't have some connection to coding. Think of one nation of people on earth that haven't been influenced in some way by coding. I am sure you can find some, but those outliers are vastly overwhelmed by the examples of coding being tied to the central fabric of contemporary digital society."

"Here at Make: we see new, ingenious projects from our community every day. Many of these projects are made possible with the use of development boards. However, if you're new to the whole idea, it can be confusing to parse out the differences between boards and the advantages of using one over another. We've created this super simple guide to help you get started. Then, when you're ready, head to the Maker Shed to check out Arduino and Raspberry Pi Starter Kits, which come with all the goodies you need for your inaugural projects. Not sure you want all those peripherals yet? Start with the essentials: Grab the board of your choice and guide yourself with our Getting Started With series for Arduino and for Raspberry Pi."