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"The iPad 2 is a great learning tool for the younger ones, and with the correct apps you can probably supplement your child's learning. But if you are worried that your child may access the internet without your supervision, we will walk you through a step-by-step to restrict access to anything from Youtube, listening to explicit music or podcast or even buying apps."

"As an advocate of BYOD, I've always talked to colleagues about the benefits of different devices and approaches within a "mixed economy" digital learning space (or "classroom where everyone's phone is different", as it's more commonly known). Largely, what you want to do should dictate the type of device you use, and I'm quite happy to work in a multi-device environment. Until I walk into my Media classroom. I should make it clear that I have no particular beef with any other individual device, or operating system, or anything else at which you think I may be showing signs of beefage. But the iPad has always been, and remains for the moment, the device with the most power in terms of Media and Film teaching. Think about it in terms of the skills you are trying to teach, and you'll see why:"

"Walking around and having a look at how students are taking notes on iPads it is interesting to see the different ways that it is being done. The options for note taking and working on documents on an iPad are exciting. This page will review a whole lot of options with recommendations."

"I recently had a pleasant back and forth with Michael Petrilli of the Fordham Institute on what ails the high school. He was reviewing the recent disconcerting NAEP results that once again show high school achievement is resistant to reform. On this he and I agree. But then he proposed some diagnoses, the latter of which I think is totally off base (an E D Hirsch diagnosis). I strongly agree with his conclusion: it's high time we better understood the problem of the high school. (Hard to believe that after 30 years of reform that started with me working with Ted Sizer in the Coalition of Essential Schools, we still lack clear answers.) After going back and forth collegially, we agreed to do some walk-throughs together next school year."

"I stood and embraced Jack when he walked into the coffee shop where I was meeting with a young leader. Jack's in his 80's and an elder statesman in the community where I live. He looked at the young man, then back at me, and asked, "Is he a good student?" Jack's question made me a little uncomfortable. I wasn't sure why. I said, "Yes, he's a great student," and left it at that. On the way home, about an hour later,  it hit me. Josh wasn't the student. I was."

""Managing iPad YouTube in Schools" is a visual guide created by iPadWells from iPad4Schools. In this guide iPadWells walks teachers through the process they use in their school to create, share and teach using videos. YouTube is the principal video hosting used in this guide. That being said, it does not mean that the guide is not relevant for your teaching situation even if YuTube is banned in your school. You can still benefit from the tips and ideas provided by iPadWells on how to create enhanced videos using a wide variety of apps and share them with students who can access them at home."

"To help fill this gap in K-12 STEM education, Harvey Mudd created its first MOOC for middle and high school teachers. Middle Years Computer Science (MyCS) walks a teacher through the lesson plans, activities and exercises of a curriculum developed to appeal to students with a broad range of interests and no prior CS experience. Schools that have been using it have found it to be easy to use, accessible and engaging for their students. Our second MOOC offering, How Stuff Moves, supports students in their first course in calculus-based physics, a fundamental building block to further physics study in college. The course provides lectures, demonstrations, problem sets, worked solutions to every practice problem and concept tests- a wealth of resources to help students master the material, whether they are considering taking a high school AP physics course or their first mechanics course in college."

"There are many modern poets saying valid and beautiful things about the world, but few people are buying their books. Walk around any book shop and you might struggle to find the typically tiny poetry section. The art of poetry remains something literary, academic, and removed from ordinary reading habits. Yet poets go to great lengths to demonstrate that poetry is diverse, accessible, and relevant. After all, song and rap lyrics are widely-loved forms of poetry. There is also poetry, as they rightly point out, in text and Twitter feeds."

"The YMCA's Camp Combe is one of the most popular and best-known sleepaway camps in the New York Area. Serving over five hundred children a day during the summer months, the facility keeps its guests both busy and entertained with a whole host of activities including swimming, archery, high rope courses, nature walks, and...Minecraft? No, I'm not kidding. An hour outside of New York City, New York, a group of third-to-fifth graders this week dove into the camp's first ever Minecraft session. Of course, as creatively-oriented as the base game is, it doesn't really teach kids all that much as far as practical knowledge is concerned. That's why Camp Combe is using an educational variant of the title: MinecraftEdu. Deveoped by TeacherGaming, MinecraftEdu is a modified version of the base game whose sole purpose is to get its players interested in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields. After logging in to MinecraftEdu, players are first taught the basics of the vanilla Minecraft experience - logging into a server, controlling their avatars, manipulating the environment, acceptable behaviors...you get the idea. Once they've been schooled in how to play, they're then given an objective; this task could be anything from building a bridge to creating a functional particle accelerator."

"If you sync your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch on your Mac, you know that the first thing iTunes does is back it up (unless you've told it not to). Depending on the size of your device and how much data you have stored on it, this can gobble up dozens of gigabytes of space. Did you know you can move those backups to an external hard drive? You can, and we can walk you through how. "

"The classroom is changing. Well, the students in our classrooms are changing. Our students are connected. This is not about particular devices or apps. Their connectedness is their ability to share and collaborate with anyone at anytime for a given purpose, whether it be to find information or to collaborate on a project. Our students are doing this without adults. As responsive educators, we need to understand this shift. We are asking our connected students to drop their devices at the door, walk into the classrooms we grew up in, and thrive in an ever-changing, connected world. Is this what is best for our students?"

"Are your knees knocking at the thought of walking into a classroom for the very first time this fall? Have no fear! We asked our friends on Facebook to share their best pearls of wisdom for new teachers, and they generously sent their inspiration, advice and need-to-know strategies. Think of them as your virtual mentors-like all teachers, we're here to help one another succeed!"

"Most people who have a dog love their dog and think he or she is pretty awesome. But even if your dog is a snarling, yapping jerk that is mean and threatening to everyone (Yep, I'm looking at you, Scooby - dog across the street!), his nose is still pretty darned amazing. (and yes, we know you love him in spite of his jerk tendencies). The video below, courtesy of the always awesome TED-Ed, takes a look at how your dog's nose helps them to 'see' the world. You'll better understand your dog's olfactory prowess, and hopefully, let them sniff a little longer on their next walk!"

" I walk into almost all of our schools in West Vancouver and very often the first thing people want to show me or talk to me about is the changes happening around the library.  Or more specifically, schools are taking great pride in their learning commons spaces that are developing.  While the physical spaces are exciting, the changes to our mindsets are far more powerful.  We are not destined for new schools in West Vancouver anytime soon but the rethink of the library has been both a symbolic and concrete shift in how we think about space and how we think about learning.  The school library - a centre piece in schools - is now the modern hub for learning."

"Google Maps is an excellent tool to use with students to develop their spatial thinking. Beyond getting driving or walking directions, this tool enables students to discover the world right from their classrooms. It is also a very good way to teach students about geography concepts, distance measurement, map readings and other fundamentals of mapping such as longitude, latitude, locations and many more."

"Every year, students create awesome projects for school which they and their parents are extremely proud of. Be it a media project, a class presentation, or a musical performance, these are things that any parent would want to cherish and that any student would love to revisit. They are personal documents of growth, and testaments to our kids' genius. If only they could bring their best projects with them to a job or college interview, or keep them around to show their own children. Enter student digital portfolios, a way to encapsulate all of the best of your child's work to share with anyone who might be interested. We're going to walk you through getting started with Evernote, and then once you get your feet wet, you can explore other options."

"A new tool developed by Disney Research and Carnegie Mellon University could let you 3D print your very own walking robot. "Progress in rapid manufacturing technology is making it easier and easier to build customised robots, but designing a functioning robot remains a difficult challenge that requires an experienced engineer," said Markus Gross, vice president at Disney Research. "Our new design system can bridge this gap and should be of great interest to technology enthusiasts and the maker community at large.""