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"A few months ago I started to create how-to videos on a more regular basis. I've been adding those videos to a YouTube playlist that I call Practical Ed Tech Tips. This morning I added the 75th video to that playlist. The video covers a wide range of topics including storyboarding, audio recording tools, blogging tools and tips, and a whole lot more. The playlist is embedded below."

"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."

"Professional Development Model: Documenting4Learning March 23, 2015 - Documenting4Learning, Featured Carousel, Professional Development - no comments I just returned from a consulting/coaching visit to Mount Scopus Memorial College, a K-12 Jewish Day School, in Melbourne, Australia. It was a one day full faculty (K-6) keynote style workshop to set the tone for a four day intense follow up work with the upper primary school teachers and students. Together with Edna Sackson, the Teaching and Learning Co-ordinator of the school, we planned the overall theme, Documenting FOR Learning, of the intense week to connect with the whole school goal of using data to inform learning. "

"CLAYMONT, Del. (WPVI) -- The library can be a very resourceful place. But 10-year-old Colin Consavage of Claymont, Delaware took his knowledge to a whole new level, going to a public library and using a 3D printer to create a human-like hand. "I was already pretty interested in bionics," Colin told Action News Thursday. "

"At the Denton mini-maker faire, I noticed Trey of Denton Public Library was teaching young children to solder! I was so excited about this empowering activity, I asked if he'd collaborate with me and come teach my high school students to solder during one of our makerspace lunch events. So for two days last week, Trey brought 10 soldering stations, some Makey badges, and a whole lot of knowledge.  I loved how Trey told the students, "It's tool, don't be afraid of it, just respect it.""

"2015 saw a whole load of new apps hit the iOS app store. With standouts like Periscope, livestreaming became one of the biggest trends, as well as GIFs and of course, emoji. So, if you're looking forward to unwrapping a new iOS device this Christmas, make sure you get some these apps installed to get you off to the best start. Prefer Android? Check out our top apps of the year here."

" It was visual literacy in action this week at The Kellett School in Hong Kong as a variety of elementary classes explored logo design for packaging. These young learners needed to craft a distinctive design, using a considered colour palette and a combination of shapes, in Assembly app on their iPads. While there are a whole variety of tools that can be used for this kind of task, one of the powerful tools in this app is actually one that is missing - text! With no words 'to do the talking', the principles of art and design took centre stage during the production of this purely visual piece of communication. "

"I have been throwing some coding challenges up on my Twitter steam lately using the #WSDHSchallenges hashtag as a kind of test to see what kind of response I had to this sort of thing. The response has been fairly strong and so I am exploring the next step. I really can't take credit for this whole idea actually. It's really modelled after the Hour of Code activities, and the Twitter challenge connection was suggested by the incredibly smart cookies that attended my coding session at this year's CHARGE 2016 conference for preservice teachers at the University of Winnipeg I had the honour of being asked to participate in."

"What is needed to start a Makerspace in a classroom or school? Passion - You need to have passion and a belief in the educational value of maker-style projects. Space - This can be a whole room or only part of a room. Supplies - Start small with simple craft materials. Often sending a message out to colleagues and the community asking for donations of materials works well. Storage - Create a place to store materials when they are not in use and student projects as they are being worked on."

"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."

"So here's the thing, we've all seen the presentations on the value of authentic learning and there is no doubt that creating meaningful learning experiences is paramount. And, incorporated wisely, with intention and forethought, giving students the opportunity to create digitally is a powerful tool. But creating on the devices is only half of the picture - less than half even. Last year, I visited a school and saw a group of Kindergarten students thrilled to show off their understanding using Doodle Buddy. I observed a student create a masterpiece. He looked at me eagerly, "Now what?" We held up the iPad and his peers applauded. Sharing it beyond the class however was not in the cards that day. I was struck by the lightening fast speed with which he lost interest in the whole activity as soon as he realized the sharing stopped at the classroom door."

"In today's world, many parents (myself included) are sending kids to after school classes, summer camps, … in the hope that kids will learn something that are missing from school. But one thing we forget while sending kids to these extra curriculum activities is there are a lot we can do right at home. Today we put together these cool STEM (science, technology, engineer, math) activities for kids that you can do in your kitchen. Kitchen science activities have always been our favorite. Now we start expand from Science to STEM. We try to pick the ideas that only use materials you already have or can be easily get from a grocery store nearby, and activities that can be done safely at home, so the whole family can explore and have fun together, no matter the age of kids. It is more important for kids to have the interest to learn than to have the knowledge itself, and the more the learning being an integral part of life, the more they will be interested in learning. And of course, they would love to do activities with their parents. So here we go"

"Here at Make: we see new, ingenious projects from our community every day. Many of these projects are made possible with the use of development boards. However, if you're new to the whole idea, it can be confusing to parse out the differences between boards and the advantages of using one over another. We've created this super simple guide to help you get started. Then, when you're ready, head to the Maker Shed to check out Arduino and Raspberry Pi Starter Kits, which come with all the goodies you need for your inaugural projects. Not sure you want all those peripherals yet? Start with the essentials: Grab the board of your choice and guide yourself with our Getting Started With series for Arduino and for Raspberry Pi."

"A driving strategy that serves students-whether pursuing self-knowledge or academic content-is questioning. Questioning is useful as an assessment strategy, catalyst for inquiry, or "getting unstuck" tool. It can drive entire unit of instruction as an essential question. In other words, questions transcend content, floating somewhere between the students and their context. Questions are more important than the answers they seem designed to elicit. The answer is residual-requires the student to package their content to please the question-maker, which moves the center of gravity from the student's belly to the educator's marking pen. In that light, I was interested when I found the visual above. It's okay to say "I don't know." Teach your students how to develop questions (because) it helps conquer their own confusion. Rebeca Zuniga was inspired to create the above visual by the wonderful Heather Wolpert-Gawron (from the equally wonderful edutopia, and also her own site, tweenteacher). The whole graphic is wonderful, but it's that I don't know that really resonated with me. Traditionally, this phrase is seen as a hole rather than a hill. I don't know means I'm missing information that I'm supposed to have."

"Perceptions of people and events are very much dependent upon who you are and what your experience has been. Events in Ferguson and Baltimore, among others, highlight our misunderstandings of each other, and how the same facts can be interpreted entirely differently. What's worse, people of color and underrepresented groups are defined by journalists covering these events, who themselves don't reflect the ethnic composition of our country as a whole. Recent studies have proven that stories can change perceptions and even make people more tolerant. Rather than wait to be defined by others, it's important that students learn to create understanding by sharing their story, their worldview, their concerns, and their triumphs with others. Groups like Youth Radio and Cause Beautiful are empowering teens in poor and minority-majority neighborhoods to become multimedia journalists. Kids in these programs learn how to tell and share their own stories with a local or national audience. No matter your class demographics or grade level, ELA and social studies teachers should integrate similar projects in their own classrooms, because every student will benefit from learning to craft a compelling visual story backed by persuasive facts and ideas."

"It's been about three years since I posted my original list of iPad apps teachers can actually use. Since then I have compiled a few other app lists: Chess Apps to Improve Your Game and Your Mind Creativity Apps Critical Thinking Apps Earth Science and Geography Apps But I do think it's time I update my original post. Or at least added to it. Most of the apps and tools on the original list are still around, but there are a whole lot more that are useful."

"I will be sharing about our Pinball Machine Mayhem that is happening in our Technology and Innovation class. We started with a brainstorming session on the process this week. We began with the Project Idea phase: This is where we explained that they would be making pinball machines. How they made them or what they used is completely up to them during this process. Next we moved into the Prototype Design students during this phase was given a blank piece of paper about the size of the actual pinball machines that they will make. The goal here was for them to start to apply the different pieces of their pinball machines to this document. What was incredible about this whole process was before we released the students to go work we asked them what subjects do they think will be covered throughout this process. Right away hands went up and students started sharing. Math - Area, Perimeter, Height, Length, Pythagorean Theorem to find the slope of their machine. ELA - Research, Creating a story for their pinball machine Social Studies - History of the pinball machine, Research on different pinball machines Science - Volume, Friction, Gravity, Art - Theme of their board, Creative look of their pinball machine. Tech Ed - Lights, sensors, buzzers Makerspace - Students talked about using little bits, robotic kits, makey makey board, along with legos and Knex's"

Blueback is a beautiful metaphor for life and particularly of the life we live in schools. When looked at close up, with an eye on the details, the experience of school is one of passing and recurring cycles. When looked at from a distance, with an eye on the whole, there are elements of constancy, the throughlines which bring meaning to our experience and which have as their consequence the residuals of education. 

"The Maker Movement continues to grow, and makerspaces have hit a point where they are clearly no longer just a passing fad. Academic universities are conducting research and gathering data on makerspaces' impact on learning, and dozens of books have already been published. More and more makerspaces are being created in schools, some in separate labs and some in corners of classrooms. And some makerspaces, of course, are in the library. In these last four years of speaking at conferences, chatting on Twitter and talking to colleagues, I've fielded a lot of questions from two camps. One camp is made up of hesitant librarians. They're not really sure that a makerspace belongs in the library. They're afraid of it taking over their whole program and replacing the books. Their school already has a STEM lab, so why do they need a makerspace in their library too? The other camp is made up of librarians who are ready and eager to start a makerspace, but who are meeting resistance from their administration. We already have an art studio; why do we need a makerspace in the library too? Aren't those kids just playing and messing around with LEGO® bricks? Shouldn't the library be a quiet, clean, studious environment? How would a space like this tie in with curriculum, improve test scores or create better experiences for our students? This article looks to address some of these concerns and to explain why makerspaces do belong in libraries."

"As I headed to South Dakota, I wanted to talk about digital literacy as it relates to the whole learner. I wanted to focus as much (if not more!) time on resources for helping our kids harness the power of digital tools to achieve their goals, to solve real problems and to do actual good in the world, as we did on resources for keeping them safe.  So, as part of a (digital and physical) BreakoutEDU experience on digital literacy, I created this image: "