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"Last month I was busy visiting local schools ready for when Little N starts reception next year. One thing that really stood out was when a headteacher of one of the schools was talking about their use of technology, and how our children would grow up to do jobs that hadn't even been created yet, because technology is moving and developing so quickly. Even now Little N is learning about coding and he is only in nursery!  I sometimes feel like I am way behind when it comes to technology and the things our children learn, but there are lots of wonderful educational toys available nowadays that can help your children learn these skills, even if us parents haven't got a clue! One of the latest is the Cubetto from Primo, which hit the UK last month, and we were lucky enough to get our hands on one to review. It's the award-winning coding toy that children can use to learn computer programming and it's suitable for ages three and up."

"There are a lot of cool FREE Apps out there that can add functionality and sparkle to the number one picture and video App Instagram, but I'm going to share my favorite four! And yeah, I'm still mourning the loss of Vine. But, finding these new Apps has helped me get past the it... a little! "

"Finland has remade its education system to help kids like Lara Osman - born to poor, immigrant parents - grow up to be middle-class success stories. "

"Among the many ways to actively engage children in the learning process, educational games are one of the most fun. With so many award winning and cleverly designed games on the market, young children to teens (and even adults!) can develop new skills and reinforce other skills, without even realizing they are learning. Board, card, cooperative, puzzle games, and more encourage interactive hands-on learning in a humorous, light hearted environment. In a addition to math, reading, vocabulary, logic, problem-solving, and spelling skills regularly introduced by educational games, turn based and cooperative games foster with social interaction, communication skills, and self confidence. Consider adding one of these excellent educational games to your home or classroom collection."

"Do-it-yourself maker community Instructables is teaming up with global 3D printing network 3D Hubs for a new contest that will see 15 lucky winners walking away with a top of the line desktop 3D printer. The 3D Printing Contest 2016 is looking like it is going to be one of the biggest 3D printing design competitions of the year, and they have an impressive prize pool to prove it. Winners will be able to win one of an assortment of some of the most popular 3D printers on the market, not to mention 3D printing vouchers being awarded for every contest entry."

Lets you resize images quickly in Win 7 - using Explorer (file manger) with a right click on an image.

"Award-winning educational software publisher Terasoft, a. s., today is pleased to announce the release and immediate availability of Action Sight Words Games & Flashcards for Reading Success for iPhone and iPad from its new professional series aimed at early reading improvement. Featuring a total of 6 engaging games with over 300 high-frequency English words from the popular Dolch Sight Words List, the Action Sight Words Games application makes learning vocabulary and spelling fun and easy for young learners."

"Finally and I think perhaps more importantly, they introduced the new iBooks Author app. An app which gives educators the power to create their own interactive learning experience for their students, the like of which we have haven't really been able to put together before. The following hits are reasons why iBooks Author tied with iBooks2 is a complete win for schools, particularly in 1:1 type scenarios."

"Education links and resources from the award winning ICTmagic Wiki - http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com"

"The gaming trend is gaining more and more ground within the educational landscape. Online games are being integrated into students learning strategies and while they are not a game changer, they do seem to have a promising potential in education. As Dr Jackie argued , the use of games for educational purposes have undergone three main phases and in each phase games have been repurposed in such a way as to align with the ethos of that phase. In education 1.0, online games which are nothing else but electronic worksheets were played in one unidirectional way and there was only way correct way for players to win ; in education 2.0 commercial games have made it into the educational scene and teachers and students started using them, examples of these games include: SIMs, World of Warcraft, Portal. However, in education 3.0, learners are not only using these commercial games in unique ways but they are also using several platforms to create their own games."

"Dropbox is an awesome tool for teachers. It ticks a number of boxes including being free and easy to use, and the fact that it allows you to keep all of your files in one place for easy access from almost anywhere while keeping immense piles of paper out of the classroom really makes it a win. We hear from so many of you who list Dropbox as one of your absolute must-have apps as educators."

"Lessons, ideas and resources related to MinecraftEDU. In November 2013, our school purchased 29 licenses of MinecraftEDU software to use in our Win7 computer lab."

"Editor's note:  Vicki Davis just wrote a new book called, Reinventing Writing. I asked her if she could contribute a post to The Innovative Educator explaining specifically how social media has reinvented writing. This is that post.   As hall of fame baseball player, Babe Ruth said, "Yesterday's home runs won't win tomorrow's games." To level up writing, we need to take advantage of the out-of-the park features and capabilities that social media inspired concepts give writing instruction. Most of us know how it feels to write an exciting Facebook status update or a powerful tweet. Without delay, we know the impact of our words as they are retweeted, commented on, and liked (or ignored.) With this in mind, it stands to reason that students want a response too. Paper essays that are only seen by the teacher with a wastebasket as their final destiny are a needless waste of time and potential. Writing can be so much more exciting and it isn't that hard to do. Notably, social media is impacting writing in the classroom in ten powerful ways. You don't have to be on social media (or even like it)  to feel the lift social media concepts can give writing in your classroom, as I share in my new book  Reinventing Writing released just this month."

"Jennifer Wagner, creator of ProjectsByJen, has been successfully encouraging teachers since 1999 to use online projects in their PreK-6 classrooms. Using various ideas, Jennifer will help you understand how online projects will help you make the most of your time in a variety of ways. Winning numerous awards for her creative ways in encouraging teachers to collaborate, her teaching style is very user friendly, creative, and personable. "

"Marie Curie, Martin Luther King Jr, Albert Einstein, Sir Alexander Fleming, Mother Teresa; all of these amazing individuals have one thing in common - winning the Nobel Prize. The Nobel Prize is one of the most highly regarded awards given to people working in the fields of literature, medicine, physics, chemistry, peace, and economics. But the Nobel Foundation is more than just an award giving Foundation, and has branched out into creating educational content related to the hard work done by Nobel Prize winners. Not only does their website contain video clips, documentaries, literature and history related to the winners, but it has over 29 interactive educational games for students to learn about key scientific, economic, literature and peace concepts."

"Everything we've been told about food and exercise for the past 30 years is dead wrong. FED UP is the film the food industry doesn't want you to see. From Katie Couric, Laurie David (Oscar winning producer of AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH) and director Stephanie Soechtig, FED UP will change the way you eat forever."