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If you have used Google+ hangouts (the free group video chat) on Google+ then you might have already known that it only allows a maximum of 10 users including the host. Often we hear complaints from users that I tried to join an hangout but it was already full. Google+ team listened to our feedback and sometime back announced a new feature called Google+ hangouts on Air which when available will allow more than 10 users and a large number of audience to participate as spectators or viewers.

Whether you're a student facing final papers or a parent helping kids with research assignments, Google has just made the process a lot easier with a new tool that automates the research process.

this is so much better than glyfos. Destiny Quest® is a K-12 student-friendly searching interface included with Destiny Library Manager, the comprehensive, award-winning K-12 library automation solution.Online Searching for the K-12 Digital NativeWhen was the last time your students called library software 'sweet'? That's what they say about Destiny Quest, the first library search interface designed to appeal to today's digital native students. Destiny Quest engages students in a visually appealing and highly graphic online searching experience, leveraging Destiny's proven K-12 research strategies to help them easily locate and identify appropriate resources. Students can apply the web-savvy skills they already know and expand the skills they need to thrive as 21st century learners.With Destiny Quest, students can see the top 10 books and new arrival titles highlighted on the Destiny Quest homepage, search the library collection, browse the scrolling carousel of bookshelves, view book covers, and link to title details from any computer with an Internet connection. Visually appealing, customizable themes make searching the library a comfortable and familiar experience for today's plugged-in generation.Students become more active learners using Destiny Quest's engaging interface, which invites them to explore and dig deeper through "You May Also Like" automatic suggestions. They can refine their search results by author, subject, series and more, and find the best titles for their interests or reading levels and save their favorites for easy retrieval with the easy drag and drop functionality of 'My List'. Younger students or non-English speakers can easily find materials using a picture-based icon search option.

Evernote is a great web service and software application that we can use in education. A lot of ink has been shed on this topic and just one click in a search engine is enough to get hundreds of links to guides and tutorials about Evernote. I have been going through so many of these resources and have collected ideas, videos, notes and many more. If you are a loyal reader to my blog ( I am glad most of you are ) you would clearly notice that guides I write here are different in that they are simple. to the point, address teachers and students direct  need, and most of all written in an easy and simple language. In this regard, I am working on an ebook that will contain all the guides I have posted here so far but will be available for free only to my subscribers. Without any further ado, let us get back to our guide.

But a lecture is a lecture. The teaching limitations of delivered information are inherent and familiar to all experienced teachers who pay attention. Flipping classrooms will hardly make a dent in education's most intractable problems. The idea doesn't even come close to meriting the over-the-top head that Time's editors gave the article: "Reboot the School." Intractable educational problems will begin to disappear when learners' rear ends are gotten off school furniture and allowed out where life is being lived, when learners' eyes are lifted from reference works passed off as textbooks and directed to the real world, when learners' minds are respected too much to treat them as mere storage units for secondhand, bureaucratically selected information. Intractable problems in education will begin to disappear when kids are not just allowed to chart their own course, but are encouraged to do so, and given means to that end. Too bad there are no policymakers willing to promote that idea, and no rich philanthropists willing to put up encouragement money.

" Thanks to the folks at HackCollege, a number of my "secrets" are out. The infographic below offers a helpful primer for how to best structure searches using advanced operators to more quickly and accurately drill down to the information you want. This is by no means an exhaustive list of search operators and advanced techniques, but it's a good start that will help set you on the path to becoming a Google master."

Virtual field trips challenge and expose students to new types of technology. It is a great way to spark their interest and motivate their learning in a specific content area. Virtual field trips can offer students more opportunities because you can take them to places they wouldn't normally be able to go to otherwise - like inside a volcano or ocean floor! In addition, virtual field trips may even boost students' reading comprehension skills and will expose them to different cultures and environments. While virtual field trips offer a great learning opportunity, they can be hard to organize and time consuming. Take advantage of our free virtual field trips and engage your students even more!

So Facebook was basically used to facilitate a discussion group, which can certainly be done with an LMS like Blackboard or Moodle or with various other tools, but the nice thing about Facebook is that many students are already familiar and comfortable with it - it's a "known entity" to them. Another positive thing, which addressed a concern of mine in this environment, was that there was a 'wall' between this academic use and the personal uses students have for the tool - by being in the group you didn't have to friend anyone or expose your personal information.

Phil Brady's Blog post 60+ Fake and spoof websitesI've updated the pages on my site that deal with science spoofs, commercial fake sites  and social, political, historical, news, religious, travel and educational spoof and fake sites. I know from the feedback that I get that these sites are well used, so I have deleted the few that no longer work and I have added some more in. There are now a total of 61 sites split between the two pages. It's not a complete listing, and it's just my personal choice, but you might be interested in them. They're primarily designed as a teaching aid, but some of them are very amusing indeed, if you have that sort of a mind!

Educational Origami is a blog , and a wiki, about 21st Century Learning and 21st Century Teaching. This is not just about the integration of technology into the classroom, though this is certainly a critical area. It is about shifting the entire paradigm of education. The world is not as simple as saying teachers are digital immigrants and students digital natives. We have to change how we teach, how we assess, what we teach, when we teach it, where we are teaching it, who we are teaching and with what. Its a tall order, but these are exciting times."

"lets multiple people upload images to the same account - perfect for field trips." Photo sharing made easy! - privately or in groups Have you ever been on a trip with some friends and you want to gather everyones photos afterwards? Or been to a party and someone else got those awesome photos? WIth Photocollect you can easily collect all their photos in one place and have all the participants upload their own photos to a common place for all to shareCollecting photos is free If you only want to use photocollect as a service for collecting your photos its free!

We are taking it into the curriculum, but not setting up "classes" instead the kids (a mixture of experts and novices) will be given a creative task such as constructing the best fortress they can using what they know about fortresses and Minecraft and test it out in survivial mode, tweeking and reconstructing/redesigning as needed. We will use ICT time to work together learning from each other to

"A text smiley face -- often called a smiley or emoticon -- is used in text message and online chat communications to convey an emotion. Learn how to make text smiley faces in this Webopedia.com text message and online chat guide."

This little app made my day! If you have ever been frustrated by having to type in a long url or wanted others to type one in in a hand held device, without email etc.. this is the app for you. Copy and paste in the url. ShortEnuf will generate a 5 character url that lasts all of 3 minutes and allows everyone to get the page you want them on painlessly!

so going to use this on Saturday for the V-room...was stressing about that long url and email etc... to mobile devices...not any more!!!! :-)

" Take a look here for a more detailed introduction and guide to using and creating a Google Form - this was written prior to Google bringing forms into the NEW menu."

This is a great looking picture survey creator that can be embedded on to a site. Add a question, choose your images and share the link. The free account allows up to 100 responses.

Welcome to the 'iPad in Education' web site - concerned with using Apple's iPad for learning and teaching. Although this is based in the UK, the site's content will reflect practice from other counties and contexts in order to explore and learn from a wide field. I am Ian Wilson (www.ianwilson.biz) a freelance Apple Education Mentor based in the north west of England (Twitter: @Ian__Wilson). I have set up this site as I believe the iPad signals the opportunity for a transformation in how technology is used in schools, colleges and universities. I am interested in looking at all age ranges, all abilities across all areas of the curriculum and keen to see if the iPad makes technology more transparent and cross-curricular as it should be.

It is no secret that mass media is an important part of today's cultural landscape. But while people are consuming media, they are also creating it. More and more, people are creating their own messages, sharing the work of others, and excerpting from other people's work as part of their own creativity, learning and development. Therefore, there is a need for a strong understanding of the concepts of copyright and fair use and how to apply it in an educational setting. While copyright and fair use can be confusing to navigate you CAN use copyrighted material in your creative work! The panel goal is to explain fair use as a reasoning process in order to reduce copyright confusion. We will model the process by sharing scenarios for the audience to deconstruct and will go through our own reasoning and analysis of "sticky copyright situations" and share helpful ideas regarding how to teach students and staff about copyright and fair use.

"There's a whole new classroom model and it's a sight to behold. The newest school system in Sweden look more like the hallways of Google or Pixar and less like a brick-and-mortar school you'd typically see."

These "no copyright infringement intended" messages are everywhere on YouTube, and about as effective as a drug dealer asking if you're a cop. It's like a little voodoo charm that people post on their videos to ward off evil spirits.