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"We hear about it all the time: Universal access to research, education and culture-all good things, without a doubt-made possible by things like open source software, open educational resources and the like. But what are these various communities and what do they mean? How can we all learn more and get involved? School of Open has rolled the conversation back to square one so that understanding the basics is easy. Through a list of new courses created by users and experts, people can learn more about what "openness" means and how to apply it. There are stand-alone courses on copyright, writing for Wikipedia, the collaborative environment of open science, and the process behind making open video. These free courses start March 18 (sign up by clicking the "start course" button by Sunday, March 17): Copyright 4 Educators (US) Copyright 4 Educators (AUS) Creative Commons for K-12 Educators Writing Wikipedia Articles: The Basics and Beyond These free courses are open for you to take at any time: Get a CC license. Put it on your website Open Science: An Introduction Open data for GLAMs Intro to Openness in Education A Look at Open Video Contributing to Wikimedia Commons Open Detective "

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.

It never fails-you're gathering materials for an upcoming class or presentation and all you can find is the pdf version of an important document. New and exciting items need to be added to your document but the pdf format doesn't really allow for that easily. Fortunately, there are several free options to get that pdf document into Microsoft Word format and then you can update your document. For the time being you can get AnyBizSoft's PDF to Word Converter by liking their Facebook Fan Page. Regularly $29.99 it's free for now.

"Why not you? Make your New Year's resolution learning to code. Sign up on Code Year to get a new interactive programming lesson sent to you each week and you'll be building apps and web sites before you know it"

We really must get to work on setting up a code club.

"Accessing music online and via mobile phones has never been easier, but it does raise legal, security and ethical issues. This new guide for parents, carers and teachers aims to give essential advice about how young people can get the best out of downloading and sharing music online and via mobile technology in a safe and legal way, as well as providing tips for discussion. This guide:"

"How to Get the Free Edition of Google Apps Alternatively, here's a quick and simple workaround that will still let you sign-up for the free edition of Google Apps even though Google has officially retired the free edition - all you need is a free Gmail or Google account."

They didn't get their funding, but the project seems to be working still. We are using it with the 6th graders.

This SAT prep program is free and has more than 60 lessons in math, reading, and writing. It also includes a score projector. This is something parents CAN have their children do to prepare for the test (unless you want to get my FAVORITE book for this -- SAT prep for dummies .) 

We're chomping at the bit to get our grimy little hands on the new Google Drive. We wrote about it in our March issue of the Edudemic Magazine, featured it a couple weeks ago, and now want to start figuring out how the basically-real tool will help teachers around the planet. After all, that's what Edudemic is all about! We throw caution to the wind and just start trying to figure out fun and useful ways to use technology in the classroom. Who cares if that technology isn't available yet?

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!!!! :-)

What Do You Want to Be?LearningJar is here to help you get there. Understand skills needed for the role, learn informally then prove your mastery

One of the common concerns we hear from K-12 users of Google Docs is the lack of clip art. This is understandable as most people are used to the large amount of clip art available in Microsoft Office programs. Well, that may be changing a little bit now. Today I was working in Google Documents (updating a Chrome help guide), when I noticed a new option for inserting something called "Stock photos". Basically if you go to insert an image as usual, you now have five options: Upload URL Google Image Search Picasa Web Albums Stock photos

"The Challenge My challenge to teachers is to create assignments, projects and techniques to capture your students' attention. Projects should be technology-rich, highly engaging, and fun learning experiences that reflect real-world skills. How will you know if the exercise reached your students? One indicator of success will be how your students respond to their parents' typical daily question: "What did you do in school today?" Will they get the usual response ("Nothing")? Or will they hear something new, maybe something along the lines of, "OMG, I can't believe what we got to do today?""

"Brainology® raises students' achievement by helping them develop a growth mindset. When students have a fixed mindset, they believe their intelligence is just fixed-they have a certain amount and that's that. This mindset makes them afraid to look dumb and curtails their learning. But when students have a growth mindset, they understand that their intelligence can be developed. Instead of worrying about how smart they are, they work hard to learn more and get smarter. Brainology makes this happen by teaching students how the brain functions, learns, and remembers, and how it changes in a physical way when we exercise it. "

But this is expensive - about $4,500 for KS3 students to go through the programme.

Here's how you can add the ability to have your iPad speak selected words and phrases. Go to Settings > General > AccessibilityTap Speak Selection from the list at the top of the screenAdjust the Speaking Rate (Choose a setting near the (s)lower end) You'll now get the option to have selected text spoken aloud in most any app that allows text editing.

Welcome to Piazza-a place where students can come together to ask, answer, and explore under the guidance of their instructor. It'll save you time, and your students will love using it. It's also free, and easy to get started. Learn more...

Mission Control is a powerful window and app manager built directly into Mac OS X, it combines elements of Virtual Desktops (Spaces), an application switcher, and a window manager, into one easy to use centralized location. If you aren't using it on a regular basis you should, so here are nine tips to help master Mission Control.

" Getting Schooled by Google Google Apps for Education is quickly gaining traction around the world. See the visual impact it's had. more "

" These days, college students are burdened by higher costs than ever before. Tuition is at an all-time high and continues to skyrocket, making it more and more difficult to get a diploma without incurring serious debt. The incredibly unaffordable cost of textbooks just adds insult to injury. With textbook publishers holding a virtual monopoly in the market, students often have little choice in the matter. Luckily, a new paradigm is beginning to emerge: open textbooks. Giving the students the option of print or free digital copies, costs drop precipitously. The only problem: textbook companies don't want them on the market."