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"The American Red Cross has a handful of apps on weather safety for iPad users looking to plan and prepare for natural disasters.  They also have a great iPad app to help students of any age stay safe.  With First Aid children can learn about different ways to act in situations that require first aid.  There are photographs, informational text, and diagrams to help students understand the best steps to take in an emergency.  First Aid includes extra features including the ability to switch from English to Spanish and a quiz to check for understanding."

"Fast forward to today… Even though there are always new edtech trends emerging, I no longer find myself having those yikes moments when I read about them on Twitter or hear about them on a TEDx Talk. However, as I assist colleagues in the classroom, facilitate PD, and collaborate with a team of administrators and teachers to develop a new K-12 tech plan, I am finding that many of the individuals I encounter throughout my work day are currently experiencing what I did eight years ago-that same what the what feeling that often creates anxiety and doubt. That said, I did some surfing to try to locate a reference guide that could quickly (and visually) help my co-workers get a better grasp on some of the latest edtech buzzwords. Here is one of the resources I am sharing with them-and you. Hopefully it will help to eliminate some of that app-prehension you might have as you try to choose the best tools or ways to incorporate technology into your classroom!"

"Makers-in the broadest sense, those who make things-and the maker movement have gone mainstream. Featured in articles from the Smithsonian to The Atlantic to The New York Times, today's makers are just as likely to be armed with traditional tools like hammers, anvils, and yarn, as they are with conductive paint, 3-D printers, and computers. They are participating in a movement marked by community norms of sharing, collaboration, and experimentation. They are gathering in libraries, garages, summer camps, and makerspaces. Cities and towns across the United States are paying attention, responding to the buzz with maker-related growth and development: Downtowns are outfitting digital workshop spaces, also knowns as "fablabs"; municipal libraries and church spaces are designating space for making; and now schools are getting on board. It is no wonder that school ears are perked. As businesses, libraries, and organizations lobby for ways to bring making into their domains, schools across the country are building innovation labs. Makerspaces are being carved out, 3-D printers are being brought into classrooms, and hacker/tinkering/maker/tech-ed teachers are being hired-and sometimes trained. There is clear enthusiasm around the tools and the sociocultural impact of maker-related values. Attend a school board meeting where a makerspace is on the agenda and the familiar selling point rings out: Maker education boosts STEM-science, technology, engineering, and math-learning, which will ultimately generate a cohort of innovative, inventive, entrepreneurial-minded young people. But we may be getting ahead of ourselves. The limited research around the cognitive benefits of maker-centered education is only recently emerging. Maker classes, maker curriculum, and maker teachers are being incorporated into educational settings in what appears to be a response to popular media and based, in part, on the hype."

"In many schools, the STEAM and maker education are colliding. Hybrid models are being created that embrace the integration of STEAM components and the creative spirit of the Maker Movement. At the intersection between STEAM and making, powerful learning occurs. I would argue that a new movement is emerging-STEAM Makers."

"When you were growing up, what did you enjoy playing with? If you were like me, maybe it was Tinker Toys, an Easy Bake Oven, or Lite Brite. I liked designing and creating things. As a teenager, my imagination ran wild as my ideas turned into sketches which later covered the walls of my bedroom. (Thanks Mom, for never painting over the walls-even 25 years later!) My own children love building and messing around with things, too. It's amazing how long a few cardboard boxes or toilet paper rolls and some duct tape will keep them entertained. (We've built forts, spaceships, and garages for all their Match Box cars.) It's the nature of these learning experiences that allow young people to think creatively and use their imagination. With a focus on standards, accountability, and assessment over the last decade or so, it seemed that these opportunities disappeared from our schools. However, within the last few years, the tide is beginning to turn. I believe an exciting shift is happening in education as schools across the country are embracing the Maker Movement and returning creative, hands-on learning opportunities to their classrooms. Additionally, STEAM education has come to the forefront with an emphasis on preparing students for college, career, and beyond, focusing on the 4 C's: communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity. STEM has transformed into STEAM as the arts become an integral component to meaningful learning. In many schools, the STEAM and maker education are colliding. Hybrid models are being created that embrace the integration of STEAM components and the creative spirit of the Maker Movement. At the intersection between STEAM and making, powerful learning occurs. I would argue that a new movement is emerging-STEAM Makers."

"It's a sign of maturity and experience to be able to determine just where you are in a journey, and I think the time has come to put some stakes in the ground about just exactly where we all are in regards to our innovation journeys. While some companies have made tremendous strides, becoming much more innovative than their peers, the real truth is that most corporations are still at the very beginning of their innovation work, and as I've written in other places the emerging new management fads around digital transformation combined with the fact that innovation often hasn't lived up to its promises means that our innovation journeys may end before they really got started. Because while it seems many companies have been on an innovation journey for quite some time, the honest reality is that they haven't moved very far. There's been a significant amount of sound and fury, signifying not so much, to paraphrase a much more ancient bard. The reality is that right now, after almost 20 years of innovation as a corporate phenomenon, most companies are closer to the end of the beginning of innovation, rather than the beginning of the end."

"League of Legends, DOTA 2, Heroes of the Storm and-of course-Fortnite. You may recognize these as titles of popular video games, even if you aren't strictly a "gamer." The reality is that video games and the communities, organizations and players surrounding them have become big business-some worth potentially millions of dollars. These aren't just games anymore; they have emerged, along with other massive titles such as Overwatch, as a phenomenon it seems everyone is racing to catch up with. Playing these games competitively, known as esports, is on the verge of becoming not only a force in the business and entertainment world, but a factor in the classroom as schools start esports leagues and curriculum springs up around gaming culture. So what do educators need to know about it?"

"Over the next several months, across six issues, Forbes Insights and Intel will tap leading voices, highlight emerging trends and showcase compelling research to create a 360-degree look at artificial intelligence. Get started on this journey with issue one below."

Modern data science emerged in tech, from optimizing Google search rankings and LinkedIn recommendations to influencing the headlines Buzzfeed editors run. But it's poised to transform all sectors, from retail, telecommunications, and agriculture to health, trucking, and the penal system. Yet the terms "data science" and "data scientist" aren't always easily understood, and are used to describe a wide range of data-related work. What, exactly, is it that data scientists do? As the host of the DataCamp podcast DataFramed, I have had the pleasure of speaking with over 30 data scientists across a wide array of industries and academic disciplines. Among other things, I've asked them about what their jobs entail.

"In a perfect world, all of our students would come to school every day well rested, well fed, clean, healthy, happy, feeling good about themselves and ready to learn. But some of the time, and perhaps for a significant segment of our students, that is not the reality. So yes, schools need to be clear on their priorities and make tough choices in supporting students while making sure their basic and psychological needs are met before we can aspire to assist them with their self-fulfillment needs. It's a delicate dance schools must do in supporting students with their varying needs; a balancing act of sorts that comes with great consequence. What complicates this even further is the reality of the very dynamic, digital world our students are growing up in. With a shifting world, comes shifting needs. And along with shifting needs comes a shifting role that schools must take on in order to best prepare students moving forward. We must revisit the graphic above to explore and best support students with their changing needs in our DIGITAL WORLD. In some cases, students get these emerging needs related to our shifting world met at home, but for others, this is not the case for a variety of reasons."

"Business adoption of artificial intelligence is accelerating, fueled by an explosion of data, the rapid growth in cloud computing and the emergence of advanced algorithms.1 In a survey of IT decision-makers that my company, CCS Insight, conducted in July 2017, 58 percent of respondents said they are using, testing or researching the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in their organizations.  Respondents also estimated that as much as 30 percent of their business applications would be enhanced with machine learning within the next 24 months - a bullish view, considering the technology's well-documented problems with trust, cost and the lack of skills needed to train machine learning systems."

"Anxious, overconfident, curious, indifferent, angry, amused, lonely, hopeful, embarrassed, empowered, afraid, excited, diminished-teachers have seen all these emotions emerge from students as they engage with classroom content. Emotional responses to lessons often go through students' minds before they even begin to think about the material: This stuff is stupid/awesome/beyond me. I'm not comfortable with this. Finally, something I'm good at. Maybe somebody will notice I can't read. Let's see her find a mistake in that one-it's perfect. Does the teacher know I didn't study this last night? Some of us deny this reality and claim we aren't trained to guide children's emotional health. We think our purpose is to teach content and skills only, not to deal with the touchy-feely stuff. This attitude turns a blind eye to the developmental nature of the students we serve, and it runs afoul of how minds learn. Unless we're the most severe of sociopaths, we all have emotional responses that affect what we do. Adding to the messiness, our individual perspectives and experiences may put us out of sync with others' emotional states, even as the institutional nature of schools demands emotional synchronicity. The resulting miscommunication, blame, anxiety, and frustration are not the best ingredients for a good day at school. Teachers who deny the emotional elements of teaching and learning can become exhausted from ceaseless confrontations with students' emotional states, often blaming their personal stress and students' failure to learn on students' lack of motivation or maturity. They grow disconnected from students, creating an almost adversarial relationship with them: I need to get them to shape up. It's them or me. These students are hopeless; why should I bother? It's the parents who created this situation. This attitude can bleed into daily interactions with students and colleagues. It doesn't have to be this way. We can develop constructive responses to our own

"Elon Musk is concerned about the future of humanity. The tech entrepreneur shared a link with his 21 million Twitter followers Friday morning, urging them to watch Chris Paine's latest movie Do You Trust This Computer?. Musk wrote that "nothing will affect the future of humanity more than digital super-intelligence," while paying homage to the late Stephen Hawking that shared the same concerns. Paine's movie, available for free streaming until Sunday night, looks at how machine intelligence has become a pervasive part of everyday lives. It also explores how users trust smartphones and social networking with their data, an issue that's seen newfound attention in recent weeks as it emerged that Cambridge Analytica may have harvested 87 million Facebook users' data. Paine shared a trailer for the movie on its Facebook page - unlike Musk, it seems Paine has yet to fully sign up to the #DeleteFacebook movement spurred by the Cambridge Analytica scandal:"

"You saw the pictures in science class-a profile view of the human brain, sectioned by function. The piece at the very front, right behind where a forehead would be if the brain were actually in someone's head, is the pre-frontal cortex. It handles problem-solving, goal-setting, and task execution. And it works with the limbic system, which is connected and sits closer to the center of the brain. The limbic system processes emotions and triggers emotional responses, in part because of its storage of long-term memory. When a person lives in poverty, a growing body of research suggests the limbic system is constantly sending fear and stress messages to the prefrontal cortex, which overloads its ability to solve problems, set goals, and complete tasks in the most efficient ways. This happens to everyone at some point, regardless of social class. The overload can be prompted by any number of things, including an overly stressful day at work or a family emergency. People in poverty, however, have the added burden of ever-present stress. They are constantly struggling to make ends meet and often bracing themselves against class bias that adds extra strain or even trauma to their daily lives."

"Flash forward eight years and the classrooms look very different in my same school district. In the two years since my district began our 1:1 laptop initiative our classrooms have evolved once more. New technology, new standards, and new content. Throughout this process I have tried my best to stay on top of where education is headed and what are the emerging "next" practices. Now when I talk to teachers in my district and around the country, I try to focus on the key elements of innovative teaching. With technology, standards, and content continually changing…these "innovative commandments" give teachers a starting point regardless of their situation."

"Dating from 1991, the Python programming language was considered a gap-filler, a way to write scripts that "automate the boring stuff" (as one popular book on learning Python put it) or to rapidly prototype applications that will be implemented in other languages. However, over the past few years, Python has emerged as a first-class citizen in modern software development, infrastructure management, and data analysis. It is no longer a back-room utility language, but a major force in web application creation and systems management, and a key driver of the explosion in big data analytics and machine intelligence."

We live in a time of chaos, complexity and contradiction. (Sardar, 2010 [1]) Where rapid changes and transformations through technology, politics, globalisation and the climate, conspire against normality (Friedman, 2016 [2]) These times demand a fresh approach to education, one that provides learners with the thinking dispositions they need to turn challenges into opportunities, to connect their learning to their passions and emerge from their years of formal education as self-navigating life-long learners. 

"The new information landscape is a product of algorithmic data collection used by social media platforms, like Facebook and YouTube, news sites, and even our cellphones. Companies use invisible computer codes to track users' interactions in order to personalize their web experiences and influence their buying and viewing behavior, leading to concerns about privacy, accuracy of information, the preservation of shared norms, and authenticity. Data is collected everywhere. Even schools, from elementary schools to higher education institutions, collect data on students through learning management systems (LMS), thrusting schools directly into debates that consider how these companies, like Canvas, protect or use data. While the ethics and impact of algorithmic-driven content on platforms like Facebook or an LMS are murky and just emerging, the Project Information Literacy study raises immediate flags."