"Do students need to learn about fake news? And more generally, should they learn how news is created and how to evaluate its credibility? Thousands of schools all over the world believe the answer is yes."

"Describing yourself as 'a social media addict' doesn't usually inspire concern from other people. In fact, it's frequently included in bio descriptions on Twitter and Instagram. Decorate your LinkedIn profile with such a claim and you may even find yourself receiving interest from media and publishing companies searching for a savvy digital native. But imagine if, one day, it's not an accolade or joke at all - but a psychiatrist's diagnosis? Social media addiction has been a much-flouted term lately; maybe it's because it's January and users are looking to be more active and spend less time online, or maybe that's because social media can have a negative impact on our mental well-being. But a growing body of research is seriously considering whether problematic and excessive social media usage could be pathological and, in turn, designated as a mental health disorder. "

"First thing I gotta say, I don't know that I really love the term Library Rockstars because I think ALL Teachers, Librarians, Teacher-Librarians, Educators....we're are rock stars or has an inner rock star waiting to come out.  I also think it sounds a wee bit elitist. OK, a whole heck of a lot of elitist.  But who doesn't want to rock it at their job? "

"If you haven't said it yourself, someone has said it to you: "I'm just not that creative." Most of us wouldn't mind being just a little more creative. Fortunately, you can. Not only are there proven ways to increase your creativity, but also, according to research, all of us have a creative gene. In a longitudinal test of creative potential, a NASA study found that of 1,600 4- and 5-year-olds, 98 percent scored at "creative genius" level. Five years later, only 30 percent of the same group of children scored at the same level, and again, five years later, only 12 percent. When the same test was administered to adults, it was found that only two percent scored at this genius level. According to the study, our creativity is drained by our education. As we learn to excel at convergent thinking--or the ability to focus and hone our thoughts--we squash our instinct for divergent, or generative, thought. The 5-year-old in us never goes away, though. Here are four ways to rediscover your creative genius."

"I don't think I know anyone who isn't in a search rut. We usually begin our search in one of two search giants. But while they may not have achieved verb status, we have other choices well worth discovering. And it's kinda in our ballpark to ensure that appropriate choices are easily available on both desktops and mobile devices. Today, I'd like to share a few search engine options that might be worth sharing in a curation with your learning community. "

"For the most part, American children aren't great at math. But Chinese children tend to be excellent. Testing half a million students worldwide, the Program for International Student Assessment is one of the most widely cited measurements of global education, and it's consistently found Chinese students at the top of the academic pile ... and Americans much nearer the bottom. Some experts argue that the PISA assessment, like any standardized tests, primarily measures a student's ability to take the test, not their knowledge, but hardly anyone disputes that the American education has some work to do when it comes to math.  In Lenora Chu's new book "Little Soldiers: An American Boy, a Chinese School, and the Global Race to Achieve," she begins to unearth the cultural differences that lead to this gap - and it's not just about what happens at school."

"Data is on overdrive. It's being generated at break-neck pace, flooding out of the dozens of connected devices we use every day, and it shows no signs of slowing down. In fact, the number of internet users has grown over a billion in the last five years, more than half of the world's web traffic now comes from mobile phones. In its fifth year, Data Never Sleeps shows exactly how much data is created every single minute. From tweets to swipes, likes to shares, the digital world is exploding. Have a look."

"There is a wealth of psychology research that can help teachers to improve how they work with students, but academic studies of this kind aren't always easy to access or translate into the realities of classroom practice. This series seeks to redress that by taking a selection of studies and making sense of the important information for teachers, as we all seek to answer the question: how can we help our students do better at school? This time, we consider growth mindset. "

"Coding's Exploding: TeachOntario Professional Learning session with Brian Aspinall, Lisa Floyd, and Wayne Loo. "

"Many people will know what it feels like to be bullied. Despite a wealth of research and well-meaning interventions at a local level, bullying is still a common problem in UK schools (pdf) - and associated with depression, anxiety and even suicide."

"Makerspace or STEM projects for kids don't have to be complicated or expensive.  In fact, some of the best projects use recycled or repurposed items like cardboard or soda bottles which means nothing to buy. Below, we've compiled some of our favorite projects that are great for makerspaces. Learn how to make a boat out of a soda bottle, create a car from cardboard and many more. Let get started !"

"Digital literacy: I'm sure you've been told this is important for students in the 21st Century. But did anyone mention it's also important for teachers too? Believe me, it is! Digital literacy is about digital skills, skills which help you use tech, create with tech and be safe using tech. So obviously as students increase in their use of technology we have to support them in how to use it wisely, correctly and safely. The same applies to teachers."

"In today's post we are sharing with you one of our popular visuals in 2017. It features a collection of some good educational websites to use  in the teaching and learning of STEAM content. We have particularly highlighted the platforms we have reviewed in the past and which have received positive feedback from our readers. We invite you to check it out and share with us  if there are any other suggestions to add to the list. This visual is also available for free download in PDF format."

"One of the most basic methods of piquing student interest in a STEM concept is to make the subject relatable to another topic they enjoy. Combine sports and STEM to engage more students when teaching these concepts."

"In India, 41km of highway road was constructed every day for the year of 2016. In the Indian government budget, it estimated the cost just for 2016 to be 19 billion USD. It would be financing any shortfall through tax-free government bonds. Computational thinking would have played an instrumental role in deciding on where the road would go through with taking into account the key hubs and may have saved the government millions, if not billions of dollars. Jeanette Wing (2012) defines computational thinking as the thought process involved in formulating a problem and expressing its solution in a way that a computer-human or machine can effectively carry out. It is the process of abstraction by; choosing the right abstractions, operating in terms of multiple layers of abstraction simulations and defining the relationships between layers guided by efficiency, correctness, and flexibility. Computational thinking can best be related to as writing software or instructionals. Every action or non-action is accounted for in the way computational artifacts are constructed. Computational thinking is great for working out a solution but there is an argument that computational thinking does not put enough emphasis on the problem itself. Design thinking, on the other hand, attempts to understand the intent or problem before looking at any solution - computational or otherwise. Design thinking attempts to identify why the problem exists in the first place before solving it. IDEO defines design thinking as the application of empathy and experimentation to arrive at innovation solutions through making decisions based on stakeholder input and evidence based research. Using the Indian roading example, a design thinker would ask, what is the intent of building the roads in the first place?"

"A math trail is an activity that gets students out of the classroom so they can (re)discover the math all around us. Whether out on a field trip or on school grounds, students on a math trail are asked to solve or create problems about objects and landmarks they see; name shapes and composite solids; calculate areas and volumes; recognize properties, similarity, congruence, and symmetry; use number sense and estimation to evaluate large quantities and assess assumptions; and so on. This is one of those creative, yet authentic activities that stimulate engagement and foster enthusiasm for mathematics-and so it can be particularly useful for students in middle and high school, when classroom math becomes more abstract."

"One of the lesser-used ways to take advantage of the Kindle app is to use it as a read-it-later service for articles you want to catch up on later… …and read all those articles offline! Also, this is one way to keep all your books and other reading material in one central location and save yourself the clutter of bookmarks or the "save it-forget it" swamp of Pocket. Remember, you can install the Kindle app on Android, iOS, and desktops even if you don't own a physical Kindle device! Let's see how its done in iOS. The process is similar for Android too."

"It's time we considered the increasing impact of AI in education. Educators have already previewed examples of the changes coming their way. Automation technology has been introduced for a variety of basic teaching tasks."

"The power of Google search engine lies in its hidden features. Getting precise search results requires much more than simply comping up with a random search query and hitting  'I am feeling lucky' button. Google search is a skill that needs to be explicitly taught to students. To this end we are sharing with you this handy visual that features some practical tips to hone in your Google search skills and enable you to effectively search for and find digital content using a wide variety of specific symbols and words. "

"In today's post we are highlighting another equally important set of search tips but this time to use on Google Drive. The purpose is to help you easily, search for, locate, and access files and documents you have saved on your Google Drive. To this end you will get to learn how to search for documents that contain specific quotes or phrases, how to find documents owned or shared by a particular person, how to search your Drive by document type, how to locate documents edited within a given timeframe and many more. "