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"Mobile devices are more prevalent in K-12 classrooms than ever. A new survey on mobile learning from Project Tomorrow shows that today's schools are relying increasingly on students having experience with devices like smartphones and tablets to engage in modern curriculum. Project Tomorrow's 12th annual Speak Up Research Project surveyed teachers and students at more than 8,000 schools and 2,600 school districts to gain insight on how these devices are affecting education. The results were adapted into a report and an infographic."

"Below is a selection of some good text to speech iPad apps that you can use with your students. Text to speech apps can be used for teaching all the four skills: listening, writing, reading, and speaking. They are also good for language learners and for special education students. You can also access the web version of text to speech tools here. Enjoy"

"Nearly two in five children have used a tablet or smartphone before they could speak in full sentences, according to a new report. Conducted by family advocacy organization Common Sense Media, the study found that 38% of children under the age of 2 have used a mobile device for playing games, watching videos or other media-related purposes. In 2011, only 10% had."

"Edtech has created learning opportunities for kids to gain valuable experiences through a teaching style that speaks their language as digital learners. Many districts are embracing a non-traditional approach to educating children through the infusion of technology--and parents are expressing a mix of emotions."

"We're just finishing up a massive project of creating a supplementary curriculum for Seattle's Summer School program. We realized that the spirit of the lessons was even more important than the content. To this end, we designed the activities to encourage students to own their mathematical experiences, to give kids an opportunity-and a reason-to fall in love with math. So we introduce our lessons with this list of the 5 principles that you can use in your math teaching to make the classroom hum. We wanted to share the list here, even though school is almost out. Let us know if these principles speak to you, and if there's anything you think we're missing."

"Gone are the days when kids would get in trouble for passing notes in class. Today's youngsters are much more sophisticated, technologically speaking, than those who grew up in the days of flip phones and CD players - let alone those whose only access to a phone growing up was a spin-dial one. This means there's a lot more texting, tweeting, and Facebooking on smartphones in your average high school or college classroom than ever before. Does this also mean that kids today are way more distracted by the bombardment of information reaching them via their tablets and iPhones? A new study out of the National Communication Association wanted to find out whether increased smartphone and social media use in class impacted student learning - and what they found was that it had both negative and positive effects. In the study, researchers analyzed kids who were using phones in class to respond to text messages - both relevant and irrelevant to the class material. They measured the type of messages and the frequency of them, and found that students who were texting about the material actually scored higher on multiple choice tests about the subject than those who were texting about non-class related things."

"Four years ago, TED Senior Fellow Ayah Bdeir founded littleBits "so everyone could unleash their inner inventor - without having to be an engineer." Since then, many people have used littleBits' electronic building blocks to do just that - and two of them happened to speak at TEDWomen 2015. Want to find out how inventor Christina Mercando used littleBits to prototype a ring that connects to the Internet? Or how guitarist Kaki King created her latest show using a littleBits synth kit? Read on …"

"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. "

"The choice of that theme also speaks to a fundamental of getting children interested and invested in learning: It helps when it's fun. Fortunately, there's a growing universe of Web-based resources, many of them available free of charge to students, parents, and teachers alike. We've rounded up eight fun sites (in no particular order) for early STEM learners here, from programming to engineering to cybersecurity to outer space."

"Last summer at the Apple developer conference, WWDC, we learned that there were more than 1.2 million apps in the Apple App Store alone. That's a lot of choices. In a sea that large, understanding how to find apps for the classroom can be challenging. In speaking with numerous educators, we learned that most app downloads result from a colleague's recommendation (i.e., word of mouth) or from choosing the first app in the search results. These are both sound strategies given the limited time educators have to explore each new app. But a larger point has become clear: learning to swiftly evaluate apps has become an essential skill in the fast-growing, ever-changing mobile classroom. The Great App Checklist, go.sas.com/MobileLearning. We offer this checklist to help educators zero in on the app they need and to judge how well it performs key functions. This rubric can help developers understand how educators choose apps, what information would help someone in this audience, which details to mention in the app store summary, and what is the essential functionality. The checklist's themes - Purpose, Alignment, Pedagogically-based, Personalization, Sharing, Ease of Use, Privacy, App Citizenship, and Access - are those discussed throughout Mobile Learning: A Handbook for Developers, Educators, and Learners."

"My all time education hero, Sir Ken Robinson has been discussing the lack of creativity and that standardized does not fit all students. We were remiss back in 2012 when we did not mention him in our blog Apps to Foster More Creativity in the Classroom!  We made up for it by writing about him numerous times since, and in 2014 I had the honor of seeing, hearing and writing about him Live from ASCD 2014. He has been writing and speaking about the sad state of the fact that we are still running our schools under the Industrial Age, and our students have been educated on the standard of routine testing, using the multiple choice test model. With all the opting out going on in 2015 I would think that by know some of the administrators and government leaders would have come across his wonderful TED Talks and realized he has it all completely right. When I read this Commentary Q & A from Education Week - Sir Ken Robinson, I wanted to once again give him a shout out as he urges us all to start thinking of the future of our children's children."

"I'm in Minecraft, of course-the phenomenally popular, open-ended game that places players in a world in which they can live and build things infinitely. Marcus "Notch" Persson, the Swedish creator of Minecraft, started out by creating a simple game, allowing players to construct whatever they wanted, using a few different colored blocks, each equivalent to one cubic meter. Released in 2009, it has evolved into a massive, world-building video game in which players uses those blocks to create anything they can think of, from houses, caves, and machines to a scale version of the Death Star. Microsoft purchased Minecraft from Notch and his team for $2.5 billion in November 2014. There aren't any express objectives or any real way to win in Minecraft. It's a "sandbox," in gaming speak-offering free play without a specific goal and currently used by more than 18.5 million players, with some 20,000 more signing up every day. Users may choose between Creative Mode, in which they can build using unlimited resources by themselves or with friends, with no real danger or enemies, and Survival Mode, where they fend off enemies and other players and fight for resources and space. They can trade items and communicate using a chat bar. Modifications (or mods) can add complexity by creating things like economic systems that let players buy and sell resources from in-game characters using an in-game currency system. These downloadable mods can also add computer science concepts and thousands of additional features."

"In some instances I think it's hard for some library staff to articulate the gains that teens make as a result of the making programs we provide. And, as a result it ends up that we talk about the actual printing activity and the printer and not the skills learned and/or improved on. It certainly can be difficult to speak to the learning instead of the "coolness" of the making. But it can be done. For example, think about:"

"There are two main methods for capturing text while using your iPad.  One way is by using Siri to carry out an ever growing variety of commands and tasks.  The other method is through dictation accessed via your iPad keyboard.  While Siri is a perfectly capable tool to use for dictation, and might be your preferred way to capture text, we have found that our favorite digital assistant especially shines when asked to answer questions and perform tasks.  Thomas recently wrote about some of his favorite uses for Siri on his iPad.  Dictation, however, is more of a quick and dirty way to collect your thoughts and have them transposed right onto your iPad screen whenever you typically would need to enter text in an app.  Think of it as an alternative to typing.  While a very helpful tool, there are some initial challenges to dictating effectively on your iPad or other iOS device.  The manner in which we speak doesn't always translate exactly to how we write-or even how we collect our thoughts.  As a result we've collected some tips to help you be the most efficient at using dictation."

The idea of the Last Lecture, for example, rests on the idea that the professor will give a lecture as if it was his last opportunity to speak to the university community. Last lectures and commencement speeches dispense life lessons not traditionally taught in a classroom, and thanks to the viral power of YouTube, Last Lecture and commencement audiences are growing well beyond their intended numbers. Read below for our list of 10 inspiring Last Lectures and commencement speeches everyone should watch.

The title on this Youtube video reads "the girl who silenced the world for 5 minutes". This is Severin Suzuki, daughter of David Suzuki, speaking to the United Nations at the age of 13 in 1992 on behalf of ECO (Environmental Children's Organization). This is a wonderful speech, spoken beautifully, emotionally, and truthfully.

Dial2Do lets you do common tasks by just calling a number and speaking. Use it to send EMAIL or TEXT messages, record REMINDERS to help you remember things, post updates to your TWITTER or JAIKU stream and LISTEN to your favourite internet content. It's easy and handsfree