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Convert audio to ringtones using OS X Terminal For a full list of options you can run "afconvert -h" in the Terminal, or run "afconvert -hf" to view a list of the audio file formats supported by this utility. One of these is the m4r (MPeg-4 Ringtone) format, which is the format that can be used as a ringtone.

"News that Microsoft is buying MinecraftEdu and beefing up the classroom version of the insanely popular game got us thinking about all the great ways educators use Minecraft to teach everything from math and social studies to team building and cell biology. "As an educational tool, Minecraft is a wonderful platform for learning," says Pam Simon who runs an after-school program called Fidgets2Widgets that has incorporated Minecraft since 2013. "You have to have mathematical understanding to build sound structures. Architecture and design features allow for innovation. Redstone in the game acts as the electrical circuitry system, so you can run minecarts, light torches, and create pressure plates." Read these six articles to get ideas for using Minecraft to engage students in deep leaning in your classroom, school or program."

"If you have run updates on your iPad or Android tablet in the last 24 hours you might have noticed some new commenting options in Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets. If you haven't run updates, you will want to after learning about the new commenting features. Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets for iOS and Android now have instant mentions in comments. Simply start typing a contact's name in a comment box and you will see a list of suggested names to mention in your comments. Anyone you select from that list will be notified of being mentioned in your comment."

"The iPad 2 is Apple's longest supported iDevice. Even though it was released in 2011, it still runs the latest - albeit stripped down - version of Apple's mobile operating system, iOS 9. A lot has changed since the iPad 2 was first released. Apple has developed faster processors, Retina screens, an entirely new cable, dedicated graphics chips, and a whole lot more. The iPad 2 uses an A5 chip while the latest iDevices use an A9. It doesn't have a retina screen and requires an old 30-pin iPod-era cable. The iPad 2 really can't handle the latest and greatest apps or games. In fact, it can struggle just running iOS  9. What was once a zippy tablet is now pretty slow to use. This isn't a problem if you stick to a single app, but jumping between them or launching new ones can take what feels like an age. This doesn't mean an iPad 2 is useless, it just means that how you use it has to adapt."

"I have found an app called Record of Reading. It is a great app…not just because it was created by my alma mater, Clemson University…but because it is an electronic means of assessing reading behaviors. You don't need a calculator as it has embedded formulas for accuracy and self corrections. The app even records the child reading while the teacher simultaneously takes the record. When replaying the record, the oral reading and the record are synced. The record can be saved or emailed. There is also a user manual if needed. You are able to type or write directly in the app and it doesn't have to be opened in a PDF annotator. Best of all, it is FREE!."

"Apple has introduced Guided Access in iOS 6. It keeps your device in a single app and allows you to control which features are available. "

"Eleven-year-olds running a classroom? That could sound outlandish to some elementary school teachers, but not to Joe Jamison, or "Mr. J" as he is affectionately called by his fifth-grade students at Lawrence Intermediate School in central New Jersey. "I learn from my kids," says Mr. J, as he dips his hand into a Philadelphia Eagles football helmet - otherwise known as the "helmet of fate" - and pulls out the name of the next group of students to give a presentation on Mercy Otis Warren, an American playwright and poet, not to mention one of the few female propagandists of the American Revolution, which Mr. J's class is studying."

In Running the Numbers: An American Self-Portrait (2006-2009), Chris Jordan documents selected statistics about the United States in visual format.

PhotoSoup is a visual word puzzle generator that allows users to create word search puzzles with tag-photo pairs taken from Flickr. The tag is hidden in the puzzle, and only the associated photo is shown as a clue. The objective is to find all hidden tags in the puzzle before you run out of time.

"Surveys and polls can serve a wide variety of educational purposes. As a teacher, you can use them to initiate quick formative assessments, gather informal feedback on your students learning, run mock exams, learn about students interests and learning pace to mention a few. You can also use them to evaluate your own teaching strategies and gain an insider look into your instruction. Upon your request, we have compiled some of the best iPad apps you can use to create  surveys and polls. Check out the list below and as always, share with us what you think of it."

"It's hard to imagine a single career that doesn't have a need for someone who can code. Everything that "just works" has some type of code that makes it run. Coding (a.k.a. programming) is all around us. That's why all the cool kids are coding . . . or should be. Programming is not just the province of pale twenty-somethings in skinny jeans, hunched over three monitors, swigging Red Bull. Not any more! The newest pint-sized coders have just begun elementary school."

"It's hard to imagine a single career that doesn't have a need for someone who can code. Everything that "just works" has some type of code that makes it run. Coding (a.k.a. programming) is all around us. That's why all the cool kids are coding . . . or should be. Programming is not just the province of pale twenty-somethings in skinny jeans, hunched over three monitors, swigging Red Bull. Not any more! The newest pint-sized coders have just begun elementary school."

"If you've been following Renovated Learning for awhile, you might remember the Catapult Challenge my Stewart Makers Club did last year with Colleen Graves' students at Lamar Middle School.  My students had SO MUCH FUN with that challenge, although I always felt like Catapult Challenge was a bit of a misnomer, since our students' creations included catapults, trebuchets, crossbow, slingshots and more. When I revisited the idea this year, I decided that rebranding it as the Rubber Band Launcher Challenge made more sense.  I offered this as a possibility and surveyed my students on what they wanted to focus on next, and this challenge won hands down. Here's my advice on how you can run a Rubber Band Launcher Challenge with your students. "

"I'm sure that if you've seen my blog before you've seen that I have a bit of an obsession with cardboard. We seem to have a constant stream of Amazon or Wish parcels arriving at our house (nothing to do with me I'm sure), and with them comes lovely lovely cardboard! It never gets thrown as either the 7yo or myself save it for a weekend build. Some times this can be completely low tech, others we hack it up a bit! For this project we used a Microbit."

Great resource for all manner of things related to Film. From camera angles and shots to plans for running film clubs, this is a site worth diving into.

A wealth of information can be found on this site for the exploration of film. Do check out the comprehensive Film Club section if you are thinking of running an ECA on film.

"RapidReading is a smartphone application for iOS devices. This free app is sized at nearly 10 MB and is compatible with iPod Touch, iPhone, and iPad devices running version 4.0 or later of iOS. The app basically provides you with reading exercises that you will need to spend 10 minutes on every day. Using the app you can double, or even quadruple your reading speed. The reading drills all provide step by step instructions to properly guide and help you."

"There's no disputing the fact that iPhones and iPads are very sought after devices, but the price of owning these gadgets can be very costly, especially when Apple charges over $600-$700 for 32GB and 64GB models. So many customers end up getting a 16GB iPad, but what do you do you when start running out of iPad memory space? Or another important question is, do you even need more than 16GB, especially in the era of cloud storage and syncing?"

"How teachers plan - I think this is one of the more interesting 'black boxes' in education. There are few studies of it, yet it is clearly one of the most vital elements of the enterprise. Winging it is sometimes fun, but it's a bad way to run a family, a business, or a classroom."

"On comparing iPad apps with iPhone equivalents, one thing rapidly becomes clear: apps for Apple's tablet are pricier. Many of the best free iPhone apps cost 59p or more in their iPad incarnations, and the quality level of what's still free is often ropey. But among the dross lie rare gems - iPad apps that are so good you can't believe they're still free. Of those we unearthed, here is our pick of the best free iPad apps. Note that apps marked 'universal' will run on your iPad and iPhone, optimising themselves accordingly."