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"In honor of Autism Awareness Month, this week's featured Top Picks lists highlight the best edtech for kids on the autism spectrum. For these kids, technology can act as a bridge -- helping them unlock their potential by improving verbal communication, developing social skills, enhancing the ability to learn and organize information, and improving their overall understanding of their environment. Technology can also be extremely helpful for parents and teachers of kids with autism, as apps, games, and websites can replace more expensive specialized devices. The lists here include more than 40 apps, games, and websites focused on four important areas of growth: executive function, social skills, language skills, and emotional intelligence."

"The rise of the Maker has been one of the most exciting educational trends of the past few years. A Maker is an individual who communicates, collaborates, tinkers, fixes, breaks, rebuilds, and constructs projects for the world around him or her. A Maker, re-cast into a classroom, has a name that we all love: a learner. A Maker, just like a true learner, values the process of making as much as the product. In the classroom, the act of Making is an avenue for a teacher to unlock the learning potential of her or his students in a way that represents many of the best practices of educational pedagogy. A Makerspace classroom has the potential to create life-long learners through exciting, real-world projects. Making holds a number of opportunities and challenges for a teacher. Making, especially to educators and administrators unfamiliar with it, can seem to lack the academic rigor needed for a full-fledged place in an educational ecosystem. However, project-based learning has already created a framework for Making in the classroom. Let's see how Making could work when placed inside a PBL curriculum unit."

The government is ready to introduce controversial new copyright legislation that experts believe will introduce harsh new restrictions on downloading, copying songs to CDs and music players, unlocking cellphones and time-shifting of television shows.

"More courses in STEM subjects, teaching more students how to code, and getting more girls and women into traditionally male professions (ie, the STEM subjects) are all big topics these days. The main issue that all of these things address is that as our world develops technologically and becomes more tech dependent, we will need more students trained in disciplines that can support that, and currently, there is a huge skills gap. The handy infographic below takes a look at how to unlock the code to student success, and addresses computer science specifically, and how few schools teach computer science courses at all."

"The Foos: Code for an Hour is a super fun free iOS app that teaches beginning programming concepts to students.  It's very similar to Scratch where users connect blocks to form commands.  There are 24 levels that students can complete to unlock new characters and abilities.  Some of the concepts covered in Foos are: problem solving, sequencing, spatial visualization, and more."

"How can games unlock a rich world of learning? This is the big question at the heart of the growing games and learning movement that's gaining momentum in education. The MindShift Guide to Games and Learning explains key ideas in game-based learning, pedagogy, implementation, and assessment. The guide make sense of the available research and provide suggestions for practical use. The post series will evolve into a downloadable guide, and can be used as a touchstone for thoughtful consideration of best practices for teachers and parents."

"The Lock screen exists in between states, when your iPhone or iPad is no longer asleep, but is also not yet open and fully functional. It can protect your device from unauthorized access and actions by a simple slide-to-unlock gesture, by a 4 number pin-code, by a strong alpha-numeric password, or Apple's Touch ID fingerprint identity scanner. Yet the Lock screen can be functional as well. If you want to, you can access Notification Center and Control Center, the Camera, and Siri. On the iPhone, you can even make emergency calls. Yes, the Lock screen can be secure or it can be convenient, it's entirely up to you!"

"The camera is one of those apps on the iPad that we sometimes take for granted. We forget it is there or don't always use it to its full potential in the classroom. This week I am presenting at iPadU: Slide to Unlock Learning, and I wanted to highlight some of the many ways that you could use the iPad camera, so I put some ideas together and added some I had seen on the web or learned from others. The result? iPadography: Photo Projects for the iPad Classroom. So, if you are looking for ideas for using the iPad camera in the classroom, take a look at some of the slides below, and feel free to share it with others who might be interested!"

"Today, teachers of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) topics mostly stick to the theoretical aspects. Students must know the number of degrees in a triangle, but rarely do they get to put that knowledge to use through structured lessons. STEM Education in the 21st Century Read More The tools listed here are transforming the way teachers approach STEM education. Integrating these new tools into their lessons can help teachers teachers reinforce theoretical concepts by demonstrating their real-world applications. By showing students that the knowledge is relevant and useful, teachers can help them unlock new realms of creativity in all scientific realms and possibly change their future career trajectories."

Let's unlock the true caliber of your Chromecast by digging into a Chrome browser's cast extension. This tutorial allows you to improve video performance, mirror your entire PC screen, display locally stored files and much more.

Windows 8 doesn't allow users to change the sound settings pertaining to system events such as Windows startup, shutdown, logon and logoff through Control Panel. However, a registry tweak can help you customize the sound settings easily.

"Since creativity is individualized and it expresses itself in each person differently, it becomes difficult for educational systems entrenched in testing and standards to figure out how to unlock creativity in students. Unfortunately, there is no ideal top down solution. Creative classrooms start and end with creative teachers. Luckily, creative teachers can be cultivated. Here are three ingredients to cultivate creative teachers."

"Back in March of this year at the Future Ready Schools Summit at Leyden High School, I attended one of the featured speaker sessions led by James Sanders. It was a great session with lots of takeaways about meaningful digital learning. My biggest takeaway though, was one of the last things he mentioned in the session. I looked back at my notes and this is the last thing I typed… "Breakout room idea". James shared with us this breakout room idea and gave us a little background about how this all came about. He went on to explain to us that there are these escape rooms around the world where you pay to get "locked in" a room with friends and try to escape by solving puzzles and unlocking codes. He was in Edmonton, Canada, with some high school students playing one of these escape games and he was amazed at how hard these students were working during this game. James wanted to turn this incredible learning experience of problem solving and fun and into something that can be used in the classroom. I left there super excited about this."

"Yesterday I mentioned a useful tip for using physical keyboards with iPads in my guide to unlocking the full potential of the iPad Pro. The tip actually works with all iOS 9 iPads connected to external keyboards over Bluetooth, Lightning, or the Smart Connector: hold Command (⌘) to see a list of supported keyboard shortcuts for the Home screen or app you're in. This works in most of Apple's built-in apps and plenty of popular third-party apps as well, but it can be monotonous prompting that sheet in each app to get a sense of what keyboard shortcuts work. Instead, I've compiled a cheat sheet of which keyboard shortcuts work in all the system apps and several popular third-party apps. Whether you're using Apple's Smart Keyboard for the iPad Pro, Magic Keyboard, Logitech's excellent K811, or any other physical keyboard, these will make you more efficient when working on your iPad."

"The single most important skill you will ever learn is in itself an oxymoron. It is dependent on your ability to vanquish procrastination and achieve something today with view to tackling the unknown that comes tomorrow. As I've written previously it requires the drive to tackle the modern world head on: doing nothing has never been so easy. Got a spare few hours? They can disappear as quickly as unlocking your smart phone. For me then this affords opportunity for those who have taught themselves the skill I allude to; to learn how to learn and have the desire to maniacally do so for the rest of your life. The ability to employ autodidacticism in your every day life is the single most valuable skill you can ever acquire and employ. Self-directed learning enables you to learn the skills that you are most passionate about and employ them in innovative way to achieve your goals and ambitions. We no longer need schools, universities or teachers to spoon feed us the information you are paying to acquire. Go out and try finding what interests you and expand your horizons through learning. Schools are broken, they teach you memory skills required to pass exams at the detriment of teaching you what it means to learn."

"Confession: I've been following the BreakoutEdu craze on social media.  Full Disclosure: I didn't get it. I was skeptical. Locks?  Huh? So I stuck with it.  I looked at challenges, I watched videos, and I joined the BreakoutEdu group on Facebook.  I saw someone write about using disappearing ink to reveal a clue.  That was it.  Something clicked and I became a huge fan. Teamwork? Critical thinking? Problem solving? Creativity?  Win, all the way around.  Give kids a chance to be a spy, or Inspector Gadget, or the problem solver you know they can be! And then I read about Michael Medvinsky using the game with first graders to unlock an extra recess.  And I may have hugged my BreakoutEdu kit, right there at my desk.   Once again, I had underestimated the power of a tool to be integrated at the youngest levels of learners… of course! Imagination, play, and collaboration?  That screams elementary!"

We are driven by curiosity. It is an innately human quality that has driven us to explore, ask questions, investigate, wonder why and search for a deeper understanding. In a very fundamental way curiosity is the driver of all self-directed learning. It is our desire to find out more, unlock new knowledge and answer our questions (big ones and little ones) that compels us to learn. Sir Ken Robinson famously and provocatively asked "Do Schools Kill Creativity?". The same question might be asked about curiosity.

"The recent release of iOS 10 unlocked a creative coding opportunity for iPad classrooms called Swift Playgrounds. It's an iPad app that lets you solve interactive puzzles that are designed to help you learn the basics of how to code in a programming language called Swift. It is aimed at students aged 12 and over and is part of Apple's Everyone Can Code initiative. So, if you are looking for new ways to start coding with students, this could be a great new platform for you to explore. Here's what you need to know."

"Computers intersect with every aspect of kids' lives, but most kids don't understand how they work. Through coding, students build essential literacy skills, gain an understanding of logic and sequence, and learn the mechanics of iteration. These tools support project-based learning and give students the freedom to create, collaborate, hack, remix, and tinker with their own unique designs. Using these picks, kids can unlock the logic of code and the basics of programming, turning computers into tools to make new things. If you're looking to begin coding lessons in your classroom, check out our Teaching Strategies for how to Get Started With Coding in Your Classroom."