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"Yes, National Computer Science Week is over and more than 10 million students participated in the Hour of Code and the feedback from all over the country is pretty incredible. Chicago Public Schools announced they are adding Computer Science into the core curriculum for all students. Schools and districts that have been promoting coding for years, like Los Altos School District, are getting great press about what they accomplish with students. New apps, programs and teacher training resources are popping up all over. 2014 definitely feels like it is going to be the year of the student coder!"

"Direct links to presentations will be added as the presentations are published each day at 8:00 AM EDT"

4 Top Window8 Featues http://onlinesupport4all.blogspot.com/2014/04/4-top-best-features-in-window-8.html

"Learning how to evaluate online content is an essential step in the process of developing digitally literate students. I have already featured several materials on strategies and skills for students to evaluate web content and today I am adding a great resource from Lisa Hartman. The presentation below features the 5 elements ( CRAAP ) students should look for when evaluating online content. These elements according to Lisa are : Currency Relevance Authority Accuracy Purpose Watch this short introduction to CRAAP:" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDGKsT7QHNs#t=24

"If there was ONE thing that I'd want every practicing educator to know about learning in social spaces it would be that no matter what field you are working in, there are TONS of folks who are sharing resources that you can use in your work immediately. The trick is tracking down those resources quickly and easily. Just because people are SHARING resources doesn't automatically mean that you are going to FIND those resources. Thankfully, practitioners using social spaces for learning are also adding hashtags -short identifiers that start with the # symbol - to the end of their messagges."

"Mathematicians tend to conjure images of ill-fitting pants and pen protectors, but one fashionable genius is changing that equation, at the same time his theories are adding efficiency to global industries. Cédric Villani is among the modern world's greatest mathematical minds. But he makes a point of dressing like a 19th-century aristocrat. Think three-piece suits, frilly shirts and ribbon-like cravats. His style, combined with his long hair; tall, rake-thin frame and collection of giant spider brooches have earned him the moniker "The Lady Gaga of mathematics."

"The iPad is a versatile device, of that there is no doubt. For instance, it can be used to take pictures or record video. An iPad can be used to compose music, browse the web, write a blog post, or create a multimedia presentation. It already replaces a number of separate devices that we used to rely on for just these tasks, so the notion of adding yet another use - an iPad document camera - does not take too much additional imagination. This is, after all, a device that is now synonymous with creativity and versatility. So, let's take a look at how to set one up, and explore some ideas for how you might use it in the classroom. DIY iPad Document Cameras"

"While gathering resources to share with campus teachers, I stumbled upon the Photo Mapo app and quickly added it to my list of tools for summer archival. The intent was to provide a repository of tools and applications that educators could utilize in the midst of their staycations and vacations that could also be extended to the classroom. Photo Mapo is a FREE app that does just that. "

"While gathering resources to share with campus teachers, I stumbled upon the Photo Mapo app and quickly added it to my list of tools for summer archival. The intent was to provide a repository of tools and applications that educators could utilize in the midst of their staycations and vacations that could also be extended to the classroom. Photo Mapo is a FREE app that does just that. "

"Thinglink was a big hit in the workshop that I facilitated yesterday in Bettendorf, Iowa. Thinglink can be used to turn any static image into an interactive, multimedia image. Yesterday, we used PicMonkey and PicCollage to create collages about what a good learning environment looks like to us. After creating those collages we saved them as PNG files and uploaded them to Thinglink where we added videos, audio files, and links to articles to enhance our collages and make them interactive."

"Many teachers know that children learn best by doing. Champions of project-based learning have decades of research to support this, including Edutopia's own compendium. In recent years, the Maker movement has generated a new following in education with many teachers adding interesting new tools and materials like robots, 3D printing, e-textiles, and more. The idea that interesting materials and opportunities for students to work independently on in-depth projects dovetails nicely into what we know about creating optimal learning environments for children."

"My journey into exploring the power of making continues for a 3rd year with two added goals. First,I plan to expand the depth of learning that goes with "making" by creating Maker Connection Logs where students write, take photos, and record short videos to show their thinking while making connections between curriculum areas and their creations. The goal of the "Maker Logs" is for students to be able to give me insight into their creative process, thinking and provide a way for reflecting with the hopes of improving the future process of "making." IMG_3496.JPG My second goal, which I recently accomplished, is to create an "Un-Maker Space." Simply put, a space where kids can take things apart. So many of the creative geniuses I met at the Bay Area Maker Faire two years ago spoke of taking things apart when they were kids. Watching my 3 year old son recently take apart his toy vacuum really solidified this idea for me. We all have this inner drive to create an understanding of the world around us. This is founded in the desire to answer all the "why" and "how" questions in our thoughts. Why did that little wheel spin when I pushed the play button on that cassette player? How did the electricity get from the cord into the monitor and then create a picture? How can I take this apart? So my students will have a space to dissect all the discarded and unwanted items and to ask those questions. In this un-maker space they'll have the chance to explore the possible answers."

"A new wave of e-textbooks is giving students more than just words and a few hotlinks on a digital page. Publishers over the last few years have been adding video, interactive maps and gamified quizzes designed to engage students more deeply in their learning. "Think of it as making the textbook a hands-on activity," says Andrew Miller, an ASCD faculty member and technology expert. "It's making the content come to life in a way that meets the needs of different learners-auditory learners, visual leaders, text-based learners." The latest e-textbooks, developed by traditional publishers as well as new players like Discovery Education, are powered by a host of adaptive features, such as adjustable levels of difficulty and instant translation into other languages. And in some districts, teachers are using platforms like Apple's iBooks to create their own digital course materials."

"We take for granted that we can interact with text, but up until recently it's been a challenge to interact (read/write/talk) with media.  I last looked at tools for annotating and interacting with video more than a year ago.  The field has changed a bit. Why interact with video? Being able to interact with video allows us to personalize video-based instruction, by leading learners to the segment of video we like them to watch, by adding voice-overs, notes, pop-ups, screenshots, maps, references, pauses.   It also allows learners to create video with even more depth and features and can the interaction can be used to support media literacy learning."

"A few days back, we looked at five great ways to incorporate word cloud generators into your classroom. There are obviously many more uses out there for them - but that is a discussion for another post. We've mentioned most of these before - in a post from way back when - so I won't go into too much detail about each individual one, but we've added a few notable ones to the list. (Of note, the list is in no particular order)."

"Gmail has a very basic feature that is often overlooked by many teachers. This feature allows you to add multiple Gmail accounts to your primary gmail account. For instance if you have two Gmail accounts with two different addresses you can check both of them from one single place with one single click. I have been using this feature for a few years now and I really love it. I have added the email address of this blog to my personal Gmail account and it saved me the trouble of having to open a new window, log off from my primary Gmail account and then log in to my secondary account."

"Synopsis is a completely free iPad app for students that lets users create notes by highlighting different sections of a PDF document.  Kids can then modify the notes they have created by adding their own text. Synopsis gives kids the power to summarize any text so they won't need to go back to a PDF document to study material.  Each individual note can be converted to its own flashcard there is no need to buy flashcards or type and create your own."