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"With our iPad project I'm constantly asking my students why is this important and how could we share this learning with others? As a result of these types of questions, my students decided it was important that we share apps that help us learn and understand more. Using SonicPics, my students are creating video app reviews for kids in our classroom and beyond. "

"As teachers, the pull of social media on your students attention will already be well known to you. The online world exerts a magnetic lure on the attention of young people today, offering community and information sharing, entertainment and gossip in ways that often pull students away from the blackboard. Understanding this dynamic, some educators are now bringing social media into the classroom in surprising ways. By working with something your students already enjoy and don't, perhaps, associate with learning, there are opportunities for creative teaching, as well as making genuine connection with your students."

""The single most important thing I learned in this class is that I don't have to have tons of homework to learn a lot." Mid-year or more frequently, I ask students to complete an evaluation form. I craft the questions carefully so simple answers are hard to write. Instead, I try to create specific, complex questions that cover the material, the classroom activities and the students-peers and the individual. Many teachers shake their heads and avoid these exercises. They scoff that students would actually take the forms seriously or that the students will say anything useful. But I find the nature of the questions often elicits a straight answer-short, but helpful."

"In a way, the current education system is already set up like a game-just not a very well designed one. Students earn points (grades), gain levels (grades), and in a way, have leaderboards. There are class valedictorians and students are essentially ranked based on their grades when colleges are deciding who to accept. Currently, the typical grading system in schools has students starting off with a 100 average, which slowly (or quickly, depending on the student's performance) gets lower and lower as the student receives anything less than a 100 on any assignments, tests, etc."

"Perhaps one of the most powerful expectations of students in an environment of scarcity is that they not question the source of the information. As the modern classroom has become connected, the amount of information available to both teachers and students has exponentially increased. Where teachers once lectured about important ideas and events, or shared their acquired knowledge with their students, today's classrooms can see every key primary source document, the actual notes of great scientists, and a limitless amount of literary criticism. For students, this abundance of information means not only a changing role from the traditional classroom, but also a drastically different set of skills and expectations."

"ducators have lots of ideas about how to improve education, to better reach learners and to give students the skills they'll need in college and beyond the classroom. But often those conversations remain between adults. The real test of any idea is in the classroom, though students are rarely asked about what they think about their education. A panel of seven students attending schools that are part of the "deeper learning" movement gave their perspective on what it means for them to learn and how educators can work to create a school culture that fosters creativity, collaboration, trust, the ability to fail, and perhaps most importantly, one in which students want to participate."

" Inspired by ideas like project based learning and #20Time, I decided to take a stand against "Google-able questions." Instead of students only finding information and curating content, they needed to create the learning for themselves. Our students live in a world of Web 2.0, social media, and content creation, and I needed to bring this into their learning. And together, we did. Halfway through this school year, I explained that we will no longer produce work that is forgettable and can be left in a backpack. Instead, we will create content that we can be proud of, will remember, and will help each other learn. I wanted to push students to develop more meaningful and diverse skills to prepare them for their futures by creating work that matters to them. To do this, we needed to produce for an audience; all learning was now public to the world. Suddenly, the learning was visible, the technology was more purposeful and complex, and class was more fun. Students' work wasn't hidden in their notebooks, but shared, produced, and even live-streamed, like the argument videos below. "

"Special projects require special highlights, and those can only come from special creativity tools. Use these with your students to add unique creative flair to projects of all kids! It's always a treat when a student can express themselves creatively in a way they're never tried before, with a tool they may not have used. Discovering how to use such a resource-and what you can create with it-is very rewarding. The creativity tools we have listed here are great little online resources that will develop creativity in all sorts of ways. Using these creativity tools, students can add artistic personal touches to their work in so many ways. They can build fonts; make themselves into a robot or a Picasso painting; draw with fire; and turn pictures into words and textures, to name a few things. These are fun tools to explore and engage your students with, so everyone can have fun!"

"Digital classroom tools like computers, tablets and smartphones offer exciting opportunities to deepen learning through creativity, collaboration and connection, but those very devices can also be distracting to students. Similarly, parents complain that when students are required to complete homework assignments online, it's a challenge for students to remain on task. The ubiquity of digital technology in all realms of life isn't going away, but if students don't learn how to concentrate and shut out distractions, research shows they'll have a much harder time succeeding in almost every area."

Load your students into this student technology assessment tool and the assessment process starts automatically. Each student receives a comprehensive assessment on basic technology literacy. The student technology assessment was designed based on the ISTE NETS for Students and can be completed in about one class period. You'll be provided with both a Pre- and Post-Assessment so you can track progress throughout the school year.

"Today's college students arrive on campus with an average of seven devices. Eighty percent of these students will carry and use a mobile phone during every waking hour of the day. So, how do you navigate all of this screen mayhem to reach students where they are…eyes to the screen? That's the challenge we're addressing at Campus Quad. Working with both top mobile engagement industry leaders and trailblazing innovators in higher education, we're defining a framework for mobile engagement that is based on communication channels that capture students in their "always connected" environment, in real-time."

"For our last day of class with a "normal" schedule (today), I met with my students in our school's 21st-century learning space. There's a sampling of flexible furniture, a corner with stadium seating, iMacs, a big-screen TV, an Apple TV, tables that also serve as white boards… chairs on wheels, couches with charging stations… it's a great space! Screen Shot 2014-05-27 at 6.32.43 PM Students' first task today was to finalize their multi-touch math books and submit them to me. Since some student groups were able to virtually turn in their books last Friday, I was able to embed their .ePub files on my teacher website, and use each unique URL to share all of the books in a ThingLink. Student groups downloaded and read no less than five books authored by their peers."

"Giving feedback is a huge part of teaching. Whether you're teaching 8 year olds or university students, math or english, you give feedback on your students' work almost constantly. The questions may be multiple choice, fill in the blank, short answer, or long essay format. You may be assessing students on their writing ability, cultural literacy, math, chemistry, foreign language, or some combination of the above. The feedback may be a part of a grade, or it may come at an earlier point in the process. Regardless of what you're offering feedback on, the goals of feedback are for the student to learn more, more efficiently, more effectively, and to better understand the material at hand."

"It is amazing how much technology can do for students to enhance their learning and personal development. I wish we had these tech affordances when we were students, things could have been much easier. Technology, however, is only effective when it is leveraged in the right way and to the right purposes. The first step in the effective use of technology is to have access to the educational tools available out there. This is usually a daunting task as the web is teeming with all kinds of tools and it could take you forever to find, assess and evaluate the tools you want to use. To this end, the folks in Open Colleges have compiled this excellent list featuring 20 educational apps and gadgets. Students can use these tools to perform a variety of learning tasks from writing and researching to managing their time efficiently.  Together with these apps there are also some handy study tips for students to boost to their creativity. I spent sometime going through these tips and found them really worth a share here."

"In an article published earlier this year, we said "public schools' focus on teaching to the test may be squelching students' creativity." Bright students don't want to be spoon-fed information, and teachers want imaginative students who think outside the box. Learning how to foster and unleash a creative mindset in students is one solution to this problem!"

"These questions are more about the student than you, your classroom, or education. What every student should know starts with themselves and moves outwards to your content area: self knowledge-> content knowledge. As an educator, your job is lead students to understanding, but student self-awareness and self-knowledge should precede that. These questions hit at a range of topics, but all revolve around that idea of a learner's identity. If it hasn't already come, the first day of school is probably imminent for you, and these kinds of questions could come in handy there as well. Get to know you type stuff. But they can also help set the tone in your classroom that introspection is a must, awareness and thinking are always-on, and self-knowledge is the ultimate goal of any system of learning."

"As the end of the school year approaches you may be looking for a good way for students to organize and share examples of their best work of the school year. If your students have blogs or wikis that they have maintained all year then all they need to do is move their best examples to the front page. But if that is not the case for your students then take a look at these five services your students can use to organize and showcase examples of their best work."

"Rocket Science 101 is a free iPad app offered by NASA designed to help students understand how rockets work. The app also helps students understand the differences between the four types of rockets most frequently used by NASA. In Rocket Science 101 students can build all four rockets in a jigsaw-like activity then virtually launch their rockets. When the rockets are launched students see the timing of each stage of the launch from surface to orbit. "

"One of my very favorite uses of technology in education is when it used by students to create things. There are so many ways to be creative with technology - writing, creating art work, composing music, creating web sites, developing presentations, and so on. One of the most intense and potentially rewarding creative undertaking students can tackle is coding - developing their own programs! The resources available to help interested individuals learn how to code have never been better or more plentiful. Schools and teachers have embraced this as an opportunity, setting students up to learn coding (and some highly motivated students take it on themselves)."

"Today's student is more in tune with technology than ever before, and this app guide from Brighton School of Business and Management shows how students can make the most out of the college experience. From finding a date to making new friends, keeping your focus to taking better notes, this Ultimate App Guide for Student Survival outlines the smartphone apps no student should live without!"