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"When I first started my makerspace at Stewart Middle Magnet School back in January of 2014, I was figuring everything out as I went along.  The term was still brand new, I couldn't find any maker sessions at conferences, and there were only a handful of other school libraries sharing about their makerspaces.  Armed with a couple of books on the growing Maker Education Movement and a dream to create an engaging environment in my library,  I gathered some supplies, put them out there, and waited to see what would happen.  My ideas and philosophy were constantly growing and evolving as we tried new activities and formats at my school.  Some experiments worked; some failed miserably.  But I learned from each and every one as our makerspace grew into an integral part of our library culture.  Looking back on the last year and a half, I've realized that there's several essential lessons I've learned in getting our makerspace going. Hopefully they can help save you some stress (and reassure you that everything will be awesome)."

Darren Draper's blog post of first impressions of some of popular educational bloggers. Good Read!

"e first few days of school are a vital time to set the right tone for the rest of the year. Many teachers focus on important things like getting to know their students, building relationships and making sure students know what the classroom procedures will be. While those things are important, Alan November, a former teacher-turned-author and lecturer says the most important ideas to hammer home will help students learn on their own for the rest of the year."

"For the next week, Autodesk's Sketchbook Pro for iPad and Mobile for iPhone are available as free downloads from the App Store. Typically priced at $4.99 and $1.99, this is the first time these popular drawing apps have ever gone free."

"It might just be the precursor to the next industrial revolution and slowly but surely, 3D printing is expanding its presence into the realm of manufacturing. Now it seems that one of the first major industries to benefit from 3D printing is the same one that spawned the assembly line revolution - the automotive industry. Israeli company Stratasys, already a major player in the field and its subsidiary, RedEye On Demand, will be part of a project aimed at putting the first 3D printed car on the roads within two years, in partnership with KOR EcoLogic. "A future where 3D printers build cars may not be far off after all. There is a vision for a more fuel-efficient car that would change the world . URBEE 2, the name of the car, shows the manufacturing world that anything really is possible. There are few design challenges [3D printing] capabilities can't solve.""

"On Tuesday, China's state-run news outlet Xinhua announced the latest addition to its news team: Xin Xiaomeng. But Xin never went to journalism school - or any school - because "she" is not a real person. Instead, she's an artificial intelligence created by Xinhua and search engine Sogou - making her the world's first female AI news anchor."

"ASCD's annual conference (see #ASCD13 on Twitter) recently came to a close, and one of the main themes that kept surfacing was the need for more "connected educators." At this conference, there were definitely some great "firsts." The general session kicked off with a keynote from Freeman A. Hrabowski III, who tweeted his first tweet; an impromptu #edcampRogue sprouted up from in-attendance edcampers; and author and poet Maya Angelou was even tweeting at age 85! "

"Three young digitally-savvy women at the Digital Data Strategist Program at Hyper Island Stockholm have written a book about HTML coding…for children. Are toddlers too young to learn how to build a website? These women don't think so! Cody the Coder in My First Website takes a toddler through a magical world where he has to create his home (his website), and as you read through, one can't be help become more familiar with the HTML code snippets necessary to build your First website."

"Originally released in early 2012, Apple's education-themed ebook creation tool took bold steps as the first WYSIWYG program to export an ebook just as its author envisioned it. As I noted in my review of that software, however, the first version of iBooks Author was very much a 1.0 product, with strange omissions and odd workflows for users who didn't want to build textbooks. Ten months later, an updated version-iBooks Author 2.0 (Mac App Store)-brings simplified tools, new templates, portrait-only options, and a better publishing workflow to the table. Naturally, I couldn't resist taking the updated program for a spin."

"As first graders are learning about the butterfly life cycle, we wanted to stay away from usual activities such as coloring in a pre-printed coloring page. INSTEAD of such an activity (created by others) and a quiz about recalling the different stages of the life cycle as assessment, we decided to have students built on their knowledge and fluency of creating a collage and CREATING a visual of their learning. The digital visual was to become an artifact for their student portfolio."

"The use of various applications enable a workflow. Through clever use of various tools a product can be achieved that at first may have been thought impossible with an iPad. Truth be told the iPad is often perceived as simply a consumption device, however, the iPad can achieve a lot more than first thought and is an amazing device that can support, learning and product creation. To import a video from 'YouTube' to 'Keynote' follow this step by step guide. "

"Confession: We at EdSurge are a bit in love with what may be America's favorite new pastime: making. Indeed, it's been a busy two years since we published our first guide on making, during which makerspaces have spread into classrooms and curriculum far and wide. But for many, issues of budget and buy-in mean maker education is still far from mainstream. To be sure, there have been changes in the Maker movement in the decade-plus since the first Maker Faires wooed a new generation of DIYers. Along the way, we've celebrated successes and asked hard questions. How can we help making become more equitable and inclusive? How can maker ed embrace traditional technology, including computer science? What are the benefits of a maker education, and how do we measure them? In this guide, we hope you'll find answers to-or at least ideas about-these and other questions that explore the meaning of making."

"Prior to presenting Hour of Code lessons in my classroom, and eventually to my entire school, my knowledge of computer programming was limited to knowing it had something to do with ones and zeroes. I understood a lot of work went into constructing the digital world we now rely on, but what that work entailed was hazy at best. In fact, prior to Hour of Code, I didn't know the second week of December was Computer Science Education Week, which is when Hour of Code is held. It was all thanks to a buzz on Twitter that I first heard about Hour of Code's launch in 2013 and its simple, but powerful, mission: to expose children (and adults!) to one hour of computer science. After a trial run with my class the first year, I dove in headfirst and presented Hour of Code lessons in every class at my pre-kindergarten-through-second-grade school -- and with only a little prep, so can you!"

"This question has attracted scientific research for more than a century. In fact, the first empirical study of this issue was published in 1835. Thus, I can offer a confident answer: not quite! At least not if creativity is assessed by productivity or by making original and valuable contributions to fields such as science and art. By that measure, output first increases in our mid-20s, climaxes around our late 30s or early 40s, and then undergoes a slow decline as we age. A person's single best work tends to appear at roughly the same age as their output peaks. But their expected creative productivity at 80 will still be about half of what it was at that high point. Whether you view that as a significant drop or not depends on whether you see the glass as half empty or half full."

"Care. Think. Design. Act. These words are the first thing that people see when entering Digital Shop, our middle school makerspace. This mantra anchors the threshold experience, a visitor's first visual impression of the space. But what do the words really mean, individually and collectively? Why those words, in that order? And how do they resonate with our learners and with my colleagues in regard to their impressions of the program?"

"Yesterday after school my fourth-quarter filmmaking group made up of fourth and fifth grade students, met for the first time to start filming "The Ghost of Bethke." Although we have been writing the script and planning the movie for the past few weeks, this was the first time we met to start filming, but this time there is a twist. This time we are filming our movie exclusively on a new iPad (the iPad 3). I was impressed with the new camera on this iPad and I wanted to see if a movie could really be shot and edited on it."

"Stats that show why you need a mobile first approach now"

"Teaching students with iPads is like nothing I have ever done in the past 13 years as a teacher. Although I have been stuck in the honeymoon stage with the iPad since I got the first generation a couple of years ago, I never imagined some of the things that kids are capable of doing with iPads. I admit at first I thought that kids would just use their iPads to do a little research on the web, but they were not happy with just browsing the web, they wanted to do so much more."

"As technology transforms the classroom, teaching is changing as well. When students head back to school this year, they may discover that monotonous lectures and mundane activities are a thing of the past when their teachers decide to flip the classroom. Educators across the globe will take a pledge to flip one lesson on Friday, Sept. 6, the first "Flipped Day". Hundreds of educators from 10 countries have already taken the pledge to use this innovative model of instruction on that day."

"As a teacher, delving into the world of education technology can be daunting. There is SO MUCH out there. How is a busy teacher to know where to begin? Fortunately, Glenda Stewart-Smith of Surrey School District #36 in Canada has put together this collection of essential teaching tools. Each has been shown to be effective in the classroom. There is no need to dive in head-first. If you are drowning in a sea of edtech, wade in this proven pool first."