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"Over the years, I've listened with interest as many have spoken to the importance of helping kids establish and maintain a digital footprint that they can be proud of. I know that some college admissions officers make a study of such things. I also know it's not enough for kids to simply avoid certain online behaviors. When young people define their interests and share their expertise in service to others online, they begin forming a global network that enriches their learning and their lives immeasurably. This is the whole point of being connected. Senior year is the perfect time to make this a priority if kids haven't done it already, because this is often when young people begin to recognize what their contribution to the world might be. It's also when they begin to realize that when it comes to learning the things that truly interest them, school just hasn't been enough."

"The News Literacy Project is hosting a free webinar series Understanding Misinformation and How to Talk to People Who Believe It to foster more productive conversations free of misinformation among friends and family members and across generations - particularly during the holidays. The series is sponsored by the Fore River Foundation and is being offered in partnership with AARP's OATS/Senior Planet program. John Silva, NLP's senior director of professional learning, and Elizabeth Price, NLP's manager of professional learning, will lead the sessions. These free webinars will help participants understand what misinformation is, how people come to believe it and how to effectively and compassionately communicate and debunk those beliefs. While older adults play a critical role in sorting fact from fiction and helping others to do so, everyone can benefit from resources and support to help prevent harm from mis- and disinformation."

"At the beginning, people thought she was nuts. Sue Mellon, the Gifted support coordinator for Springdale Junior and Senior High/Colfax School in the Allegheny Valley School District, thought 7th and 8th graders could develop a deeper understanding of poetry by playing around with robotics."

"A report released by the Center for American Progress states that schools are not using technology in a way that benefits students. The United States is spending billions of dollars on technology in schools across the country, yet students are using the equipment for "lower-order skills" like practice and drill programs. "Our findings suggest that many schools have yet to take full advantage of technology's ability to improve the art of teaching and the process of learning," said Ulrich Boser, author of the report and Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress. "In classrooms across the nation, many students are not using technology in very sophisticated ways. Students are too often using computers to do drill and practice instead of more intellectually engaging activities such as using statistical programs or spreadsheets.""

After two days of talking about curriculum, integration, STEM, STEAM and HASS I am left with more questions than I started with. In some respects, the concept of curriculum integration is simple. It is after all something that Primary teachers almost take for granted. But for Senior and Tertiary educators the question of curriculum integration is inherently complex. At all levels questions emerge of what curriculum integration might achieve, what purposes it serves, what it could and should look like and how it should be supported by curriculum planners. In the current climate, with its debate around the role of education within an innovation economy, shaped by technology and confronting demands for a STEAM enabled workforce the shape of our curriculum is under pressure. 

"Coding brings young children rich opportunities for language development and the "notion of learning from mistakes," says Chip Donohue, the dean of distance learning and continuing education at the Erikson Institute in Chicago, a graduate school in child development. "We actually don't do enough of that with young kids." The sequencing and patterns involved in programming reinforce skills that have always been taught in the early years, but now also create "habits of mind that are essential for the 21st century," adds Donohue, also senior fellow at the Fred Rogers Center, which provides resources and information on media use with young children. When children code together, they are also learning from each other. "In the process of learning to code, people learn many other things. They are not just learning to code, they are coding to learn," Mitchel Resnick, professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab, wrote in an EdSurge article. "In addition to learning mathematical and computational ideas (such as variables and conditionals), they are also learning strategies for solving problems, designing projects, and communicating ideas." Resnick adds that these skills are useful to everyone "regardless of age, background, interests, or occupation.""

"CS Unplugged is a collection of free learning activities that teach Computer Science through engaging games and puzzles that use cards, string, crayons and lots of running around. The activities introduce students to Computational Thinking through concepts such as binary numbers, algorithms and data compression, separated from the distractions and technical details of having to use computers. Importantly, no programming is required to engage with these ideas! CS Unplugged is suitable for people of all ages, from elementary school to seniors, and from many countries and backgrounds. Unplugged has been used around the world for over twenty years, in classrooms, science centers, homes, and even for holiday events in a park!"

"Washington, D.C. -The American Library Association's (ALA) Office for Information Technology Policy (OITP) today released "Progress in the Making: Librarians' Practical 3D Printing Questions Answered" (pdf). Co-authored by 3DPrint360 CEO Zach Lichaa and ALA Senior Policy Analyst Charlie Wapner, the document poses and answers sixteen practical questions related to establishing 3D printing as a library service. All of the questions were fielded from library professionals interested in 3D printing technology."

"In our innovative classrooms across America, students are using technology in ways that were unheard of just ten short years ago. In a small elementary school in Northwest Baltimore, students use their Makerspace to create 3D printed materials, learn to code and engage in other making activities. In another school in Philadelphia, a student fulfills his senior capstone project requirement by creating a "Smart Beehive" that uses sensors and a camera to track the health of a bee colony. While there are some schools of education that prepare pre-service teachers to excel in these types of technology-rich environments on their first day of in-service teaching, there is still room for growth in our teacher preparation programs as a whole, particularly as more schools shift towards digital learning. "Education-Creative Commons" by NEC Corporation of America licensed under CC BY 2.0" This is why the 2016 National Educational Technology Plan (NETP) asks us to refine educational technology's place in teacher preparation programs. It makes the bold statement that "no new teacher exiting a preparation program should require remediation by his or her hiring district."¹"

"Last week I laid out 3 Untapped Social Media Resources for Teachers. This week we take a look at how to leverage social networks for students.  My sister is a senior in high school. Whenever we spend time together I ask her about "what the kids are into these days?" She is right in the heart of the age range for kids who use social media the most (13-18 yrs old). Our conversations give me a sense of how kids are using social media and her thoughts on using it for learning, or even if there is a place for it. She tells me all the time that she's "addicted" to her phone, just like most adults. Most of her time is spent on Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram. She and her friends are sending photos, snaps and videos back and forth all day long. That is their world. They are continually capturing what is happening around them and sharing it with each other. And we have the data to back her up. "

"This afternoon, our Parker senior administration and IT teams gathered to approve a 1:1 iPad program that will start next year in grades 3-5. Our number one priority is to deliver adequate training to the teachers about how addition of these devices into the classroom environment can dramatically change our learning experience to become more student-centered, collaborative, project-based, exploratory, fluid, and open to the world knowledge base."

"On Monday past, I emcee'd a Film Festival for students in Junior and Senior High. The festival was a huge hit thanks to my amazing team of colleagues and dozens of talented teens. But my proudest moment of the evening was one video in particular - created by a kindergarten class."

"It's hard work to parent a teen. In a recent New York Magazine article, Jennifer Senior writes, "It's dicey business, being someone's prefrontal cortex by proxy. Yet modern culture tells us that that's one of the primary responsibilities of being a parent of a teen." Of course, it's no surprise that the last thing teens want is to have a parent looking too closely into their lives. It's a constant push-pull phenomenon for parents and for teens. One minute, a teenager can descend into grumpiness, isolation and solitude, and in the same breath, that teen wants a hug, affection and a laugh. And, when we throw social media and texting into the mix, the equation does not always balance out. "

" Google's senior vice president, Susan Wojcicki, for a Google+ Hangout on Air"

"When we made the decision to equip our students with iPads, either for class use for our younger users or 1:1 for students in the senior school and sixth form, we knew we were unlocking a host of opportunities. Some were easily identified, others have gradually revealed themselves through an iterative process. An illustrative list in no order of priority includes the benefits of instant access to the Internet without the hassle of booking IT rooms; enriched digital communication; a range of handy apps; a virtual multimedia studio; and the creation of our own iBooks and iTunesU resources tailored to the learning needs of our students. What we did not perhaps appreciate was the impact digital devices could have on the physical learning environment. "

"Teachers need to reinvent themselves, like Miley Cyrus. We need to come in like a wrecking ball and smash our traditional approach. Like Miley did. Hannah Montana was great! But her audience changed. With time, her fans grew up and started to leave Hannah behind. So what did she do? Cut her hair, ramped up her wardrobe and engaged her audience again. Please understand, I do not align myself with any of the twerking or ridiculously bizarre on and off stage behaviour. But as one of my smarter senior students pointed out, she is the consummate marketer. Gimmicks aside, she did grab her audience back."

"The short answer is that Strogatz has discovered a certain thrill in rectifying the crimes and misdemeanors of math education. Strogatz asks his students, more than half of them seniors, to provide a "mathematical biography." Their stories reveal unpleasant experiences with math along the way. Rather than question the quality of the teaching they received, they blamed math itself-or worse, their own intelligence or lack of innate talent. Strogatz loves the challenge, "There's something remarkable about working with a group of students who think they hate math or find it boring, and then turning them around, even just a little bit.""