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"For a variety of reasons (which we'll get to shortly), the iPad is the pre-dominant technology form in K-12 environments. They dominate blog headlines, promote incredible user loyalty (you could say cultish, but you said it, not me), and make adults drool like teething infants. Walk by any Apple store and through their wide glass storefront you'll see otherwise rational human beings swoon and fawn, listening intently as Apple experts explain how a slideshow works, how to use iCloud, or how to sync their iPhone with their iPad. School districts buy them, teachers buy them, and parents even send their students to school with them on occasion. So it makes sense that this kind of popularity would carry over to the classroom. Educators have officially had their curiosity piqued. They want to know how to integrate it into activities, lessons, and curriculum in general, and judging by our traffic patterns here on TeachThought, they come bearing questions."

"Despite the increasing number of searches we do online, we are not using the power of the search engines very efficiently. There are a variety of tools offered by Google that would help us find what we are searching for, faster with better results. So here are 5 such high powered ways to help you arrive at the answer to your queries."

"Strip Designer is a great comic strip creation tool to add to your students' iPads. Priced at $2.99 USD it is $2 less than Comic Life and is just as good. Strip Designer provides dozens of comic strip layouts from simple one frame comics to one page layouts in a variety of configurations to multiple page layouts there is probably a layout that works for all students. And if not, your students can create their own custom comic strip layouts in Strip Designer."

"Graphic design students require a variety of tools in their arsenal at all times, ranging from high-end laptops to smartphones. Most K-12 schools and higher-ed institutions, however, are focusing on the use of tablets. This is because designers are now able to use more of a 'free hand' in tablet use due to the availability of additional screen space. This is especially helpful in item personalization and logo branding, for mechanical engineering, as well as custom t-shirts or other commercial products, and perhaps most of all web design."

"So, how exactly do I get my iPad screen to that TV or projector? Well you've got a few options, and they all have their pros and cons. Here's a toolkit that hopefully covers a wide variety of possible scenarios, so you can take your iPad to your next presentation with confidence."

"Recently, when I perused my twitter feed, I came upon a blog post titled Teacher as Learning Designer. Andrew Miller, the author, states: "If you are a teacher and you are trying to explain what you do, say, 'I am a learning designer!' Teachers need to be empowered with a variety of instructional designs to meet the needs of all students. They need to be honored for their expertise to create creative and engaging learning environments. We can re-frame the concept of "teaching" to truly encapsulate all that teachers can and should do!" The way teachers teach their students has, I believe, a direct correlation to the way in which they learn themselves. We have all read in the latest teaching journals that teachers of today have to be devoted to lifelong learning. But what does that mean, really? What elements affect teacher learning and then in turn affect how that teacher teaches?"

"2012 has been an amazing year for my growth as a professional. The main catalyst of this growth was when I started engaging with like-minded educationalists around the world on Twitter in January of this year. In particular, I learnt about new methodologies like brain-based learning, flipping the classroom and a variety of technology-based teaching aids."

"Taking a screenshot with an iPad comes in handy more than you might think as you integrate Apple's latest technology in the classroom. Whether you're walking students through the installation of an app, the configuration of a program, or simply capturing annotated screenshots for your flipped classroom, it boils down to a few simple steps. There are a variety of apps that can help here, but the simplest mechanism for turning the iPad's screen's display into a still image is to hit two little buttons."

"Today's topic is Google Images. This is probably among those most used services in education. Teachers and students use images for a variety of learning and teaching reasons. However, before including images in any classroom project, students need to learn about copyright issues. Educational Technology and Mobile Learning has already published a post on this. Check it out here to learn more."

"Here are our picks for the 25 best free iPad apps, which span a variety of genres and needs, and include everything from content creation to social media and pure entertainment. We'll be updating this list regularly as developers come up with even more amazing (but free) ways to make the iPad seem absolutely essential in our everyday routines. (And if you're more interested in interactive entertainment, be sure to check out our list of the 25 best iPad games as well.)"

"Recently, I tried to explain to a teacher from another school how we are trying to use iPads BEYOND apps. We have over 100 apps on our school iPads and introduce our students according to age level to a variety of them, but the focus of the use of the devices NEEDS to remain primarily as a tool for: exposing students to skills, characteristic of a "modern learner" critical thinking personal learning transformative learning workflow fluency anytime/anywhere/anyhow creating"

"I love learning new things and SnapGuide is a fantastic free app that you must explore! Pinterest is a great place for gathering new ideas, and SnapGuide takes this concept to a whole new level. SnapGuide is full of how-to guides that show step-by-step instructions on how to complete a variety of tasks. You and your students can even create your own how-to guides using this free service!"

"One of the best general iOS features is wifi syncing, which, just as the name implies, allows you to sync content, data, pictures, music, whatever, to and from an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch and a computer running iTunes, without ever connecting the device with a USB cable. Of course, this feature is only useful when it's working, and a wide variety of users are encountering an issue where wi-fi syncing just stops working. Either the device refuses to show up iTunes, or it disappears immediately when attempting to sync content to it. The solution below will resolve either of those problems and is quite simple."

"Sometimes we focus on what an app can't do and forget to look at what it can. That's been the case with iBooks Author, Apple's e-book creation platform released nearly a year ago. Part of the problem was Apple's own hyperbolic statements about its "disruptive" nature to the textbook publishing industry. It failed to live up to the hype for a variety of well-documented reasons. But this post is about what it is, not what it isn't."

"Digital storytelling is one of the potent educational activities to spark students creative writing and engage reluctant writers. It allows students to have their own voice, communicate their thoughts and experiment with a variety of semiotic modes including text, images, audio and video. In today's post we have handpicked for you five great iPad apps geared towards unleashing the writing gene within students. Students can use them to compose their stories and presentations and share them with others via email or social media. Check them out and share with us your feedback. Enjoy"

"Today as we were sifting through Open Culture's list of over 700 free audio books we came across this great resource from Internet Archive. This is a collection embedding hundreds of free audio books covering a wide variety of themes and topics meticulously curated by the folks in LibriVox. the collection is huge and you may want to use the integrated search functionality to search for specific titles. You can narrow down your search using criteria such as views, title, date reviewed/published/ archived, and creator. Once you find your audiobook, click on its cover page and you will be directed to a page where you can listen, download and access more details about it including publication date, usage licenses, and reviews."

"When teachers know their students well, they can build strong connections that lead to better learning. Knowing students' interests, strengths, and weaknesses help teachers tailor learning experiences for their students. Formative assessment is how teachers collect information about what students know, don't know, and want to learn. Formative assessment takes many forms, including exit tickets, discussions, games, and quizzes. These kinds of informal assessments can also help teachers get to know their students as learners and as people. There is a very wide variety of digital formative assessment tools that can be used for free (often charging for extra features). I've written a little about 15 of them below. Most of these tools work with any web browser, so they are great for laptops, computer labs, iPads, Chromebooks, tablets, and smartphones."

"Learning math can be a great source of fun for kids. There is a wide variety of entertaining and interactive online games  to use with your kids to introduce them to basic as well as intermediate mathematical concepts. As learning aids, games are proven to engage kids' attention and boost their interest in learning. To this purpose, and besides the multiple math resources we have shared here over the last couple of years, here is a very good collection of websites that provide games designed specifically to address kids mathematical needs."

"I'm so honored to be a part of the 28 Days of Hands-On STEM Activities series hosted by Left Brain Craft Brain this year. The free, printable "Coding a LEGO Maze" activity that I've created as part of this series can grow with kids. Children as young as 5 or 6 can attempt the easiest challenges, while the concepts introduced in the harder challenges are covered in any introduction to programming class. There are so many baby steps involved in learning how to think like a programmer. Throughout the past several years, I've programmed in at least 6 different computer languages (C, C++, Java, Fortran, Matlab, and Python). For a beginner, what's important is not the specifics of a language (called the syntax). Rather it's better to understand the commonalities between languages which are the building blocks of any programming language. These LEGO mazes, which can be solved with "code" using paper rather than a computer, illustrate 4 levels of difficulty and include a variety of programming concepts. While these Levels will be described in more detail below, here is a quick overview:"

"Technology can be a powerful tool to assist students with special needs or any sort of learning challenge. In particular the Chrome web browser allows users to install a wide variety of web extensions that provide tools that can help all learners, regardless of ability level. In this blog post we will take a look at 21 Chrome web extensions that can assist students in five main categories: Text to Speech Readability Reading Comprehension Focus Navigation Some of the tools fit into more than one topic, but each is only listed once. Certainly this list does not cover all of the useful web extensions available for struggling learners, but it is a great place to begin. In addition to the list of extension, I have also linked in the video and help guide from a webinar I did a while back on "Google Tools for Special Needs"."