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"Yesterday I read Pernille Ripp's post, "Administrators, Please Inspire Us At Back to School." I started thinking about videos I've seen that have inspired me. I realized that the very best ones? They all have something in common. They are kids. What if this year, our schools, our teaching, and our learning became about kids once again? Kids we ALL have in our classrooms, hallways, and schools. Kids who have, right inside them, a chance to make a difference, to change the world. Kids who are already wanting to change the world and kids who are waiting for us to bring that out in them. Kids who need someone to believe in them, or kids who believe in us. I watch each one of these videos and see the things "school" and "learning" should be about. Passion. Believing. Dreaming. "

"As parents and teachers, we encourage our kids to become well rounded people who love learning.   In our world of cell phones, ipads, and computers, it's easy for kids to become passive consumers of media and technology.   We, however, want are kids to be active, curious, and creative.   Since I'm a musician and a software engineer, I hope that my kids learn to express themselves emotively and become creative thinkers.   We're trying to foster a family culture where we are active, encourage tinkering, and building physical things with our hands.    With these ideas in mind, I wanted to share a great video I found by Vinnie Vrotny and Sheryl Peterson entitled "STEAM: Creating A Maker Mindset."   In this conference talk from the K12 Online Conference in 2013, they share their experiences encouraging a "maker" mindset in the Quest Academy .   Their school has a very unique class teaching design thinking to kids.    It's giving me lots of ideas for building a maker environment for our family.    In this class, Sheryl encourages her students to invent a creative design problem and solve it.   With the tools and support of the teacher, the kids are encouraged to build their design.    In some cases, the kids ask Sheryl to assign a problem to them.    The kids aren't used to having creative freedom to design and make.    In these cases, Sheryl encourages the students to keep thinking."

"Regardless of whether you think every infant needs an iPad, I think we can all agree that technology has changed education for the better. Today's learners now enjoy easier, more efficient access to information; opportunities for extended and mobile learning; the ability to give and receive immediate feedback; and greater motivation to learn and engage. We now have programs and platforms that can transform learners into globally active citizens, opening up countless avenues for communication and impact. Thousands of educational apps have been designed to enhance interest and participation. Course management systems and learning analytics have streamlined the education process and allowed for quality online delivery. But if we had to pick the top ten, most influential ways technology has transformed education, what would the list look like? The following things have been identified by educational researchers and teachers alike as the most powerful uses of technology for learning. Take a look. 1. Critical Thinking In Meaningful Learning With Technology, David H. Jonassen and his co-authors argue that students do not learn from teachers or from technologies. Rather, students learn from thinking-thinking about what they are doing or what they did, thinking about what they believe, thinking about what others have done and believe, thinking about the thinking processes they use-just thinking and reasoning. Thinking mediates learning. Learning results from thinking. So what kinds of thinking are fostered when learning with technologies? Analogical If you distill cognitive psychology into a single principle, it would be to use analogies to convey and understand new ideas. That is, understanding a new idea is best accomplished by comparing and contrasting it to an idea that is already understood. In an analogy, the properties or attributes of one idea (the analogue) are mapped or transferred to another (the source or target). Single analogies are also known as sy

"video sharing hosting and sharing site designed for hosting content produced by kids and content about kids. Kids Tube monitors all submissions and monitors comments left on videos. "

"A few days ago I shared here PBS Kids Video app that provides a wide variety of educational videos for kids. Today I am adding another wonderful iPad app in this direction. Brainfeed is one of the top ranked apps in the iTunes store. Designed to inform, entertain and inspire, Brainfeed provides children 7+, tweens, teens and even inquisitive adults with a safe corner of the web to explore a universe of educational videos. Each video in Brainfeed  is handpicked by a team of enthusiastic educators from around the globe who are tasked with finding short (under 10 minutes) and documentary style videos that meet the following criteria:Curriculum-based, entertaining & engaging, visually stimulating, high quality content, age-appropriate , and child-friendly."

"There has been a huge buzz recently on Twitter about the new YouTube Kids app. There are thousands of great videos to search for on this new platform. The app opens up in a very clean and inviting menu that breaks down content into four categories: Shows, Music, Learning, and Explore. Each of these sections has designated channels packed with amazing video content. The YouTube for Kids App is FREE and is certainly one that I will be recommending at future conferences I present at. Where we couldn't fit all of the great content into this post, we certainly welcome you to use the comments section below to share your favorite YouTube for Kids channels."

"If Minecraft has taken over your kids and you hardly know who they are or what they're talking about anymore, you're in good company. But, although you may love that the game helps build 21st-century skills such as creativity, innovation, and collaboration, your kids' obsession can be overwhelming. Perhaps most puzzling is that every waking moment they're not playing Minecraft, they're in front of YouTube watching Minecraft. For fans - and they are legion - Minecraft YouTube videos are a huge part of their enjoyment of the game. There are tutorials (for ideas on new things to create), "Let's Play" videos (footage of people playing the game), challenges (new gameplay ideas to try), mod showcases (which show off cool thing kids can download to modify their Minecraft worlds), and more."

"Give your smartphone or tablet a workout while you and the kids head outside for some healthy, tech-infused fun. Apps designed for outdoor adventures let kids do everything from study bugs to identify constellations and create a compilation video of bike stunts. Whether you're interested in family fitness, DIY, or survival skills, you'll find plenty to keep kids active and engaged. So grab your device and head outside armed with these amazing tools."

"Kids can learn the physics of hockey and aerial skiing, the engineering of the halfpipe and bobsled, the chemistry of snow and ice, and the math of Olympic greatness -- all from fabulous five minute videos featuring winter Olympics. Not only that, but kids can apply these STEM concepts into improving their own winter sports abilities and use the knowledge to experiment with science, engineering and math through play. NBC Learn and the National Science Foundation have released Science of the Olympic Winter Games 2010 and Science and engineering of the Olympic Winter Games 2014 to teach the science and engineering behind individual Olympic events. There are sixteen videos in the 2010 series and ten videos in the 2014 series. Each video is approximately 5 minutes long, and the 2014 series includes lesson plans, integration guides and ideas for hands-on investigations, as well."

"Not all Minecraft videos are created equal. Approximately 90% of the top-rated Minecraft videos found on YouTube and other popular video streaming sites contain inappropriate content not suitable for children. Clean Minecraft Videos is the solution. Clean Minecraft Videos offers more than 200 videos from the YouTubers kids know and love that are free of all inappropriate content."

"A very cool solution for getting videos in the hands of students, JuniorTube (formerly YoouKids) helps parents and teachers curate and share a YouTube playlist.  Users can pick out educational videos for kids to watch remotely and safely so they can easily be viewed on children's iPads and iPhones. JuniorTube makes it simple to put quality content on their devices without worrying about navigating YouTube by themselves. Parents and teachers can suggest to each other their own YouTube playlists that they curate, so they can forward to their kids other recommended safe playlists and videos to watch."

"Looking for some good summer reading books for your kid? Epic has you covered. It provides a huge library featuring over 20.000 eBooks designed specifically for kids 12 and under. The library also includes audio books, comic books, graphic novels, educational videos, read-to-me, fiction and nonfiction books from leading publishers such as Scholastic, Macmillan, National Geography, and HarperCollins.  Epic is free for elementary teachers and librarians in the US and Canada."

"Doodlecast for Kids is an iPad app that allows kids to draw on a whiteboard and record their voice while drawing; a kid's version for creating animated videos. Doodlecast for Kids has also a gallery of more than 20 story prompts to help struggling students. Students can either pick out one from the prompts or start from scratch."

"Whether you're a technophobe or a geeked-out early adopter, there's no denying that the world is run on computers, and the language of computers is code. It seems only natural that there's a wave of interest in the idea of teaching kids to code -- some say it should be a requirement in every school. I think no one would argue that every kid is cut out to be a programmer, but a basic understanding of code couldn't hurt. In fact, this knowledge could give a leg up in an increasingly technology-centric society. Hopefully this playlist of videos will help you learn more about some of the people and organizations who are working to change the opportunities available for kids to learn code. "

"Summer and vacation go together like, well, two of the best things in the world. Parents have time off from work, kids have time off from school, the weather is nice, the sun is shining, and travel beckons. Whether it's a day at a local fun spot, a trip across country, or an adventure half-way around the world, memories will be made. Amazing memories, crazy memories, shared memories. No matter how great a vacation is, however, you can never be there forever, nor can you take everyone you love with you. What you can do is bring the vacation home for you and for them! With your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad, not only can you take videos and pictures of those magic travel moments, but you can edit and share them right in iMovie, even right away if you want to. Best of all, for kids (of all ages!), iMovie's trailer templates make it incredibly quick and easy to put together something short, sweet, and fun!"

"Last week I laid out 3 Untapped Social Media Resources for Teachers. This week we take a look at how to leverage social networks for students.  My sister is a senior in high school. Whenever we spend time together I ask her about "what the kids are into these days?" She is right in the heart of the age range for kids who use social media the most (13-18 yrs old). Our conversations give me a sense of how kids are using social media and her thoughts on using it for learning, or even if there is a place for it. She tells me all the time that she's "addicted" to her phone, just like most adults. Most of her time is spent on Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram. She and her friends are sending photos, snaps and videos back and forth all day long. That is their world. They are continually capturing what is happening around them and sharing it with each other. And we have the data to back her up. "

"YouTube is a terrific resource for teachers looking for content to share with students. There are tons of videos that will reinforce key concepts and help kids get excited about what they are learning in the classroom. Since there are plenty of videos on YouTube that are not kid-friendly, YoouKids has developed an iPad app that helps teachers organize which clips they want to share with their students."

"On a sweltering day in late July, a group of 9th and 10th graders gather around an iPad inside of the otherwise empty International School of Science in Queens. They've just completed an assignment on the quadratic equation, and a team of three is showing off their project: a funny video they animated of themselves playing volleyball, with the arc of the ball graphing out a parabola. There's not a sheet of graph paper in sight. The app they are using is called ChoreoGraph, and it's part of a suite of apps collectively known as Noticing Tools, developed by the New York Hall of Science, that aim to leverage the way kids naturally play to teach math and science concepts. The goal is to solve one of the major issues facing educators today: getting more kids interested in STEM-science, technology, engineering and math-an area where the U.S. has consistently lagged behind other top countries."

"Not so long ago, video games in the classroom were limited to educational computer games that taught skills like multiplication or parts of speech. A growing number of teachers, however, are integrating the popular games kids play at home (such as "Angry Birds," for example) into their curriculums. What's more, researchers say that video games can be a powerful path to learning since they allow kids to grow from their mistakes, develop problem-solving skills and find internal motivation."

"Sometimes we just need to forget the curriculum, the standards, the test prep and interject some fun, some inspiration, some motivation into our daily routines. Well, I can't think of a better way to do so than via the super popular Kid President videos."