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R. Byrne: "NASA's Eyes on the Solar System offers 3-D tours of the solar system in your browser. You can put the tours on auto-play or go through them manually. You also have the option to explore the Solar System without the guidance of a tour. I tried it both ways and found it much easier to use the tours as a guide for exploring the Solar System. The tours have some multimedia elements included in some of the stops as you move along." Download the app to get the videos. Also works on mobile devices. Mind-blowing.

Several of these are mobile tools, and include apps for creating Pac-Man style games, timed quizzes, Jeopardy-style games, etc. Move over old Flashcards!

N. Hockly's blog gives a nice description of a mobile lesson plan using a QR reader. This lesson boosted student energy and enthusiasm and built on language the students generated themselves. Some "newness" effect was no doubt present, but it's a nice start for beginning learners.

5 neat apps -- there are probably comparable apps for Android and other mobile devices. Whether you have an artistic bent or prefer hand-written notes, one of these might suit you and could be linked into Evernote or OneNote, most likely. T/H to R Byrne.

More QR code mobile phone activity from N. Hockly. This treasure hunt could be used by students for Orientation to the campus/school. Directions indicate how to adapt for beginner students or intermediate students.

R. Stannard teacher training video on Padlet (formerly WallWisher), which is useful for collaboration and group work, as well as mobile work from home.

This is an absolutely great set of ideas that your students could use to create special effects, like 8mm-style, using rubber and duct tape for a tripod, and overcoming lighting limitations. For the inventive, but low-budget film-maker.

This app is like Evernote on steroids. Free from Microsoft, you can organize a whole class using the apps built into the interface for all devices, both computers and mobile. Organize and publish lesson plans and assignments, create quizzes and make hand-written notes on them, send emails, add photos from other devices, create video and audio messages, clip any webpage to view later on or offline. Works with a large number of other apps, such as fax/scanner tools, Feedly for archiving information, smart pens, ModNotebooks, which digitizes paper and pencil documents. Or create your own app with onenote appi (dev.onenote.com). T/H A. Burns

An interesting article on podcasting by Forbes online, predictin that podcasting is the future because of its ubiquity on both iOS and Android mobile phones. The younger generation is once again leading innovation's way with what to us older users was a technology of the 2000s. Podcasting has many uses for ESL/EFL, and having your students create a regular podcast series, scripting and recording it; or having them do podcast exchanges with students in another country -- these will be memorable learning experiences.

These how-to videos were made by 5th graders (11-12 yrs old). Shows what kids can do when inspired to creativity.

"With the advance of web 2.0 technologies, there emerged a wide range of educational tools that we can use with our students in and outside the classroom.Collaborative web tools is one example. Using such websites, teachers will be able to help in holding online and real-time discussions with their students, help them in their projects and assignments, guide their learning, do backchanneling, and synchronously moderate discussion threads and many more." The focus here is on tools for collaboration. Many are new and interesting, such as virtual whiteboards, searchteam to do online searches together, browse websites together, create online projects collaboratively, create your own chatroom, etc.. Some of these will be gone quickly, but they all appear quite useful. About 30 in the list.

A clever tool to make your own apps using some very basic format templates.

"Description: A breathtaking array of 'learn to code' Apple, Android and Windows phone apps. Learn C++, Python C#, HTML, SQL, JavaScript, Java, CSS, php and Swift via the site or apps. These are 'must try' tools for anyone starting out with coding. The site even has a 'Code Playground' to experiment with your code." I haven't had a chance to try out any of these, but this should be an interesting starting point to get students coding.

Shared infographics can visually engage learners. These are five to create flowcharts, Venn diagrams, audio notes, etc.

"An Apple app which lets you quickly scan and mark paper-based quizzes using the special mark sheet and your mobile device. The children simply make a mark on their answer sheet to show their answer." (M. Burrett) "Quick Key eliminates hand-grading of quizzes, tests, and formative assessments, even for teachers working in paper-based classrooms, without a computer." Clever app - reads and grades.

This app lets you peek into students' minds as they are in the process of learning a subject. Distribute tests or problems and then see each students' answer real-time. Students can enter text, draw pictures, use math symbols, etc. You score on a slider and they receive instant results. The animation on the sign-up pages gives some examples of each type of student response. The only problem might be that learning really takes place over a long period of time -- you can "know" some things, but not really understand or learn a subject.

"Dropbox is a very useful tool to store online files, sync your computers and mobile devices and share files. With all those capabilities it makes it a natural tool for educators!"

"In this intriguing TEDx talk, author of Screen Time: How Electronic Media Affects Your Young Child and Director of the New America Foundation's Early Education Initiative, Lisa Guernsey, discusses the research she has been involved with, as well as some the practical outcomes of her work exploring learning and screen media."

An educator explains how he uses Twitter to inspire authentic conversations within his class and across the Twitterverse:: "Within days he found students tweeting at each other multiple times an evening, mentioning and "favoriting" their peers' thoughts, and providing ample material for classroom discussion. His students were being "more careful and reading more closely," Bronke noted. Conducting conversations online allowed him to track their comprehension as well. Because most of his students used Twitter for recreational purposes, they could also utilize their experiences in English class and include their class hashtags as they responded to tweets from One Direction and Tim Tebow. And as an added bonus: Bronke used his already-established education-oriented Twitter handle. This meant that the student comments he retweeted were often retweeted and "favorited" by teachers and scholars who wanted to support their ideas. These students learned that their voice mattered even outside of the classroom setting, and that engaging in real dialogue could be fun and worthwhile."

Cleverly presented in a slideshow at the head of R. Byrne's blog.