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"Kid Inventors Day falls on Benjamin Franklin's birthday (January 17, 1706) and celebrates the ingenuity and entrepreneurship of kids. To encourage your students to dream about their own inventions, try some of these activities in your classroom."

"You've heard so many great things about 3D printers and what you can do with them. There are so many wonderful machines which can make your builder's dreams come true. But if you want to buy a 3D printer, what model should you choose? How much should you spend? And where's the best place to buy a 3D printer? Here's a guide to the most pressing questions when buying a 3D printer."

"When I wrote the lesson plans for Makey Makey, I really had to push my thinking about how I could take this invention kit and really make it educational. I'd seen enough lessons driven by technology and not by educational concepts and did not want my lessons to feel forced or feel like technology for technology's sake. I wanted the educational necessity to drive the lessons and not the other way around. My first step in creating lessons was to do a little crowdsourcing for research. I had to look at the ways other people were using Makey Makey as a way to get myself beyond the banana. But I think the reason I really like the term "invention literacy" is because after spending last summer pushing myself to create, make, and dream up projects with Makey Makey and make all those things- well it changed me."

Use these photos as stimulus for writing. This Flickr group offers eccentric and experimental images produced by the Flickr community's aspiring creative minds. Surrealism, in all mediums of art, is a constant source of inspiration due to its limitlessly artistic nature and photography is no exception. The style allows photographers to visualize their wildest dreams and conceptualize their strangest nightmares. Photographs in this group spark new insight on creativity and perspective, welcoming the unusual crossroads where fact and fiction converge.

"The iPad is the professional artists dream. No more carrying around massive portfolios of work - you can just carry around all of your work, analogue (photos of your work) or digital (created on your iPad) all on your iPad. It fits in with Art education in that way too. Students can photograph, blog, eportfolio, document, review, collaborate and share their artwork using iPad and that's before you even start thinking about the plethora of Art apps for drawing, designing and creating. There are lots of apps that support the teaching of Art and many many apps that support learning too."

"Recently, I was given the opportunity to go one-to-one in my first grade classroom with iPads. To say that my students and I were excited to do this would be a bit of an understatement. It has long been a dream of mine to go one-to-one and for the students it is, as they say, like kids in a candy shop. With Great Tools Comes Great Responsibility"

"What better way to store the photographic memories from this summer's vacation than with high quality photos, edited, stored, and shared with just your iPad and iPhoto? Sound like a dream come true? Well, it's not only possible, it's fairly simple. Here are some of our favorite tips and tricks to use with iPhoto for iPad"

"The iPad is a device that inherently inspires creativity. With its large, yet handheld screen and new 3.1 million pixel retina display that brilliantly showcases colors, crisp fonts, and detailed videos, it's a dream for anyone obtaining an education. From elementary school children, to students studying for their Masters degree its no wonder that the iPad has become a key tool in many classrooms across multiple educational echelons."

"Technology has altered human physiology. It makes us think differently, feel differently, even dream differently. It affects our memory, attention spans and sleep cycles. This is attributed to a scientific phenomenon known as neuroplasticity, or the brain's ability to alter its behavior based on new experiences. In this case, that's the wealth of information offered by the Internet and interactive technologies. Some cognition experts have praised the effects of tech on the brain, lauding its ability to organize our lives and free our minds for deeper thinking. Others fear tech has crippled our attention spans and made us uncreative and impatient when it comes to anything analog. "

"Teachers can't escape the growing trend of technology in the classroom. It's more than just hype. More schools are buying tablets for use in the classroom, with Apple's tablet sales to the education sector doubling last year. As a mobile software company whose product is used extensively in education, we dream big about the future of technology in the classroom. We have worked with numerous great teachers who have successfully leveraged tablets to improve the learning experience for students. Are you tempted to join the trend? Here are ten tips for introducing tablets into your classroom."

"Yesterday I read Pernille Ripp's post, "Administrators, Please Inspire Us At Back to School." I started thinking about videos I've seen that have inspired me. I realized that the very best ones? They all have something in common. They are kids. What if this year, our schools, our teaching, and our learning became about kids once again? Kids we ALL have in our classrooms, hallways, and schools. Kids who have, right inside them, a chance to make a difference, to change the world. Kids who are already wanting to change the world and kids who are waiting for us to bring that out in them. Kids who need someone to believe in them, or kids who believe in us. I watch each one of these videos and see the things "school" and "learning" should be about. Passion. Believing. Dreaming. "

"It never ceases to impress me how great teachers consistently find new and innovative educational tools to put in their class toolkit. They do it in a multitude of ways - through sound preparation and in-depth knowledge of the subjects they teach; fresh activities and exercises; engaging resources; and creativity - all to inspire a love of learning and encourage students to think and dream big."

"The first day of tinkering was just awesome. Within a matter of minutes, Kearn had the MaKey MaKey connected to Play Doh and was controlling a train simulator on the computer. Ludwig controlled the horn and Kearn drove the train. Kearn wanted to make a video to show what he had done, so we pulled out an iPad and made an impromptu video which he wanted to add to his Youtube channel. He also started following my blog and even left a comment about how much he loves the makerspace. Both students were completely independent and were perfectly capable of dreaming, tinkering, and making on their own. I was available for support as needed, but they really just wanted a space to explore. As they continue, I want to connect them with some experts that might mentor their ideas and curiosities, but for now, they just need to tinker. "

"My objective with this wide-ranging set of skills, and involving the community so closely in their development, is to give kids the chance to practice whatever makes them passionate now and feel encouraged -- even if they're obsessed with making stuff exclusively with duct tape. It's crucial that kids learn how to be passionate for the rest of their lives. To start, they must first learn what it feels like to be simultaneously challenged and confident. It's my instinct that we should not try to introduce these experiences through skills we value as much as look for opportunities to develop them, as well as creativity and literacy, in the skills they already love. MAGICIANS CRAFT ILLUSIONS THAT BAFFLE THE SENSES AND CONFUSE OUR REASONING. THEY PLAN LIKE SCIENTISTS, BUT PERFORM AS ARTISTS. ONLY THROUGH LONG AND DISCIPLINED PREPARATION DO THEY SUCCEED. It's difficult to predict which skills will be valuable in the future, and even more challenging to see the connection between our children's interests and these skills. Nothing illustrates this better than Minecraft, a popular game that might be best described as virtual LEGOs. Calling it a game belies the transformation it has sparked: An entire generation is learning how to create 3D models using a computer. Now, I wonder, what sort of businesses, communication, entertainment or art will be possible? Cathy Davidson, a scholar of learning technology, concluded that 65% of children entering grade school this year will end up working in careers that haven't even been invented yet. I bet today's kids will eventually explore outcomes and create jobs only made possible by the influence of Minecraft in their lives. Why take any chances and build your dream house with blueprints alone? The Minecraft kid could easily make a realistic 3D model of one for you to walk through before you build. That's why DIY treats Minecraft as a tool, not a game, and encourages our members to use it to pursue art, architect

"Create. Collaborate. Iterate. Dream. Reflect. Design. Take risks. It's the stuff learning is made of. Not the kind you find in a textbook or in testing practice. The kind you find in the world. The kind that grabs a hold of your interests, ignites your passions, and launches you into a space where there are possibilities. The kind that is messy and tangled and amazing. We all need to be reminded of what true, authentic learning really is. Deeper than standards, into a space where connections are made with each other and with the world. Let's make that happen. Or you could just turn to page 26 and continue following the textbook company's idea of what will engage your learners."

"Move over, Space Camp: Coding is quickly growing as a popular activity for kids, and not just for those who dream of being programmers when they grow up. The logical thinking required to code can help kids succeed in school and other day-to-day activities-it's no wonder why big companies are getting behind the effort to help students learn the needed critical thinking skills.  If you want to help them get started, there are a number of visual, kid-friendly apps that teach users how to build games and code other simple activities on their own."

"When Sonja Khan started college, she'd never thought of studying computer science. But when she heard from friends that the intro class was good, she decided to give it a try - and then ended up majoring in it. Four years later, she has just graduated with a computer science degree, is pursuing a master's degree and is headed to a summer internship at Facebook. "I didn't even know anything about the field before; I had never considered it," she said. "I signed up for it pretty much on a whim and really enjoyed it." Ms. Khan's story reads like a dream for universities and technology companies - where only about 15 percent of computer science graduates and technical workers are women. The industry has been under pressure to recruit more. The difficult question, though, is how to encourage more women on paths like Ms. Khan's"

""Sorry, that's a great idea, but we can't build it here." That's my nightmare. A student in the STEAM Room, our student Makerspace, approaching me with a brilliant project concept requiring some reasonable tool we didn't even consider. Of course, there are worse nightmares involving our reciprocating saw or our drill press, but those scenarios are easier to plan around. How do you come up with an all-encompassing list of tools and materials that will facilitate every student's wildest dreams, while staying within budget and within space constraints? How can you avoid stifling creativity when you haven't even polled your students for their interest areas? How do you know when your Makerspace is complete?"

"Making is not just about STEAM, reserved for science class, or even meant to be just an activity for after school.  Making across the curriculum can change the way students are thinking, interacting, collaborating, and engaged.  Gather some simple materials, offer students the chance to design, create, and dream up a new way to engage and connect with the world.  For example, integrating making into reflecting on a favorite book, creating to demonstrate a concept visually, investigating and interpreting the use of materials to show thinking?  It takes learning to a whole new level, allows students to drive, and best of all? It can be FUN!   It can be overwhelming to look at the products and projects floating around the internet and people often ask, "Where do I even begin?"  Here are a few simple ways to get started with making in your classroom - no matter what subject you teach!"

"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)."