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"SAS Curriculum Pathways has released a new handbook called Mobile Learning: A Handbook for Developers, Educators and Learners. The handbook includes practical tips on creating applications for education, and highlights opportunities for collaboration between educational technology providers and educators. It also advises parents and educators on how best to use mobile learning resources in class and at home."

"IF YOU CAN think back to what you were doing when you were eleven-years-old, the chances are that demoing your own tech product in front of thousands wasn't one of them, but that was the case for these five students. The product in question was BullyBug, a wristband that aims to reduce bullying. When a child presses a button on the wristband, it sends an alert to the teacher's phone via its app. The teacher can later sit down with the child and help solve the problem. The idea was conceived by five 5th class students from St. Audoen's National School in Dublin city centre: Katelyn O'Connell, Chloe Long, Ben Hughes, Nadine Costello, and Daniel McCann."

"A new whitepaper from personalized learning nonprofit KnowledgeWorks explores how wearables, augmented reality and virtual reality could play out in education. Take one example shared in the report of a fourth-grader: She's wearing a Hello Kitty "smart sleeve" and toting her tablet in a matching knapsack as she heads into the homework center after school and begins to tackle a writing assignment. After 10 minutes of staring at a blank screen and experiencing a rising heart rate, her wearable triggers a "nudge" from an app that reminds her that it's OK to ask for help. She clicks on an icon and receives a holographic image of her coach in a corner of her device, calmly and clearly offering her immediate help."

"Minecraft: Education Edition is coming to the iPad platform in September. The iOS version will share the features found in other versions, including the Update Aquatic package for underwater STEM activities and the Chemistry Resource Pack. It will include a touch interface that is "functionally equivalent to the standard control scheme for the game," according to Microsoft, which owns Minecraft."

"It's high time for students to move beyond an hour of coding exercises and learn computational thinking. That's the message of a new report from Digital Promise that examines what's important to know and be able to do in a "computational world." Digital Promise is a non-profit that that promotes the use of innovation in education, particularly as it uses digital technologies. The new report, "Computational Thinking for a Computational World," explains its theme of computational thinking by borrowing a description from a long-ago article published by the Association for Computing Machinery: It is "a way of solving problems, designing systems and understanding human behavior that draws on concepts fundamental to computer science… a fundamental skill for everyone, not just computer scientists." More simply, the report noted, "The skill required to tell a computer what to do is programming. The thought process behind programming is computational thinking." What it isn't is humans thinking like computers. And, according to the report's authors, it's something that needs to be taught across subjects in K-12 schools."

"Coding has become an automatable skill and will not be the ticket for high-paying jobs we've made it out to be."

"An increasing number of K-12 schools are transforming classrooms, libraries or other spaces into Informal workshop environments where students can tinker or invent, and with good reason. According to The NMC/CoSN Horizon Report: 2016 K-12 Edition, "Makerspaces are also increasing student exposure to STEM subjects and technical disciplines. Learners are applying maker skills to address some of the world's pressing challenges with innovative solutions." But how do makerspaces get started? THE Journal spoke with several experts, who shared their insights into the makerspace planning phase - not just designing or equipping the space itself but preparing the students and staff so that they're able to make the best possible use of it."