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 When students were given their own iPad, they were given full autonomy of their device and had to set it up from scratch. They set up all of their own accounts and installed their own apps, from a combination of required apps to those which they chose themselves. Each student was given a $40 iTunes gift card to use for their purchases. Experience showed that true success relied on moving away from the school being the "boss" of the machine to one where it was student driven and student managed. 

It was found that the Ipads are very different from laptops in that students can really relate to them and, when used, they do not become the focus of the learning. Instead they become one device which can be used with all learning tools that students have access to. The iPad became the "red pen" where much of the work got done in other ways and the iPad was used when needed. Laptop computers control thinking and control the desk. When used, they become the focus of the learning. iPads are a technology which has really changed the way students work with computers in the classroom. The real challenge for staff is to embrace this and to understand that you can't expect to have iPads in the classroom and teach the same way that you did when you didn't have them. It changes the way students work and they way teachers teach. 

Facebook is such a popular application that is so widely used for personal and business uses, it makes no business sense to ban it. If companies do not address this they could be at the mercy of corporate suicide

Social networking is like food and drink to Generation Y workers, they are so used to communicating in a more open and collaborative way. Therefore, forward looking companies should be aiming to encourage social media activity amongst their employees rather than stifling it

A hybrid app is a native, downloadable app, that runs all or some of its user interface in an embedded browser component. To the user, a hybrid app is almost indistinguishable from a native one: it is downloaded from the app store or marketplace, it is stored on the device, and it is launched just like any other app

simply load some pages from their web site as part of the app

many companies are not already jumping on the HTML5 bandwagon is the belief that HTML apps cannot access native device features. Indeed, pure mobile web apps

Exporting & Saving One thing that SVG can’t do is save the resulting image as a bitmap. It’s easy for <canvas> because the element is already a bitmap in the first place! The canvas can export its image to a data URL (e.g., data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGg...). This data may then be rendered in the browser, which could then be saved or dragged to the desktop, used in a new canvas, and so on. The browser must support PNG images, and it may have varying support for GIF and JPG. For our example, we’ll stick with PNG since it supports alpha transparency, and where we haven’t drawn on the canvas, it’ll be transparent. To get the data URL, we simply call canvas.toDataURL('image/png'). Note that we’re calling toDataURL() on the <canvas> element, not on the 2D context. This is because we’re getting all the pixels in the canvas, not just the pixels in a particular context. So taking the example we’ve put together already, we’ll make the browser redirect to a PNG version of the image when a user clicks on the <canvas> element (a contrived example, I know!): canvas.onclick = function () {  window.location = canvas.toDataURL('image/png');};

Mobile learning games offer opportunities for: Mapping:  games that require players to  notice and interact with their communities and physical spaces Touring: games that connect people to organizations (e.g., non-profits, neighborhood organizations) and  people who work there.  These games tell a story through a space, not necessarily about a space. Performing: games that immerse players in role-playing, simulations, and alternative and/or augmented realities

Mobile games can incorporate conversations and activities in real-time as well as asynchronous activities through the use of physical and virtual social networks.

mobile learning games are more likely to connect learners to physical and social spaces than online games played on personal computers  or using video consoles.

In a study of link performance for short URLs generated by the service and posted on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr, 1pm–4pm on weekdays emerged as the most fruitful time to post a link on Facebook, while for Twitter 1pm–3pm was best.

For both Facebook and Twitter, brands should avoid posting links after 8pm and before 8am, after 3pm on Fridays and on the weekends, or they run the risk of achieving low engagement on the post.

Facebook traffic begins to rise at 9am, peeks mid-week between 1pm and 3pm and fades from 4pm. Links posted from 1pm to 4pm result in the highest average click throughs, with absolute peak performance coming at 3pm on Wednesday.

Times are changing. Kathy Sierra features a timeline on her blog which suggests that the 1970s and 80s were about how well we could learn, the 1990s and 2000s focused on how fast and how much we could learn, whilst today's education should be based on how much we can unlearn. and, she says, learning to let go of old and out of date rules is one of the skills we all need to develop. Futurologist Jack Uldrich is applying the same principle to the medical profession, arguing that the key to unlearning is to come to the realisation that 'we are all in a fog', and can't clearly see the future. Unlearning will be a strategy for coping with rapid change and uncertainties, he argues.

I spoke about Open Educational Practices, (including Open Educational Resources and Open Scholarship) a subject which I am learning more about all the time as the movement grows and gains traction. You see, the idea behind open practices is that anyone can gain access for free, at any time and in any place - courses, software, ideas, knowledge, people... OEP requires everything to be open - for access, scrutiny and repurposing. So whether it's licensing agreements such as Copyleft or Creative Commons, or open access journals, or even massively online open courses, the open educational practices are gaining ground and influence in the academic world.

It's not going to be easy to change a model where knowledge has become a commodity though. Too many powerful people and organisations stand to lose a lot if everything becomes 'free' and open. But things are changing slowly. The publishing houses who once had a strangle hold on academic journals are beginning to lose their grip. Some are having to change their business models. Google Reader and Google Books for example, are giving us all more than a glimpse of the pages of just about every book that has ever been published. and open access journals are opening up knowledge for all without payment. So when a student comes up against a paywall - what will they do? They will go elsewhere of course - to the free versions that are out there on the web.

Forget uni, teach yourself, learn more, have fun.

Teach yourself at your own pace and learn what you want, when you want. Keep up to date, buy a few good books, get on Twitter, read articles and have a genuine passion and interest and you’ll do a better job than any university will do.

Design and education

Twaining in Twitter, Terence Wing, Learning solutions magazine, 3 February 2011

Twitter in education, what next? presentation by Dave Hopkins, 11 September 2010

A framework for teaching with Twitter, Mark Sample, The Chronicle of Higher Education, 16 August 2010

This paper investigated the use of special eyeglasses designed with a built-in video camera and microphone for the purpose of recording classroom activities from the point of view of both the professor and the student. The aim is to eliminate the need for dedicated video recording in the classroom. This paper reviewed the various techniques used to record a lecture and highlighted the advantages and disadvantages of each. It also presented 10 activities from the point of view of the student and the professor, which may play a role in improving students' understanding of the lecture. The videos produced by the professor and student cameras were reviewed in terms of their effectiveness and usefulness with regard to the 10 activities. The results were analysed and conclusions were drawn based upon the findings of this study.

Many companies have social media presence on sites such as Twitter and Facebook and create mobile applications but have not set up the infrastructure to deliver the same level of customer support as their more traditional communication channels

The report noted a "huge rise" in the number of customers who now use social networking sites and mobile commerce for business transactions, and said customer service in those areas was often isolated and not keeping pace

It is important for companies to fully embrace these newer channels by taking the lead in not only addressing the marketing aspects, but also in developing integrated support to ensure customers receive consistent treatment and quality problem-resolution over their social media and m-commerce communication channels.

I use Evernote, Everywhere: Android (phone And Tablet) Windows Web Clipper (Chrome)

1. Evernote for staying focused

2. Evernote for getting organized

According to a FAQ on Picasa's support site, the photo-sharing service provides up to 1 GB of free storage for photos and videos to its users. But since Google+ actively encourages storing and sharing photos - its android app even offers an "instant upload" option - there may have been some concern about storage limits among Picasa users. As it turns out, there's nothing to worry about. If you're signed up for Google+, photos up to 2048x2048 pixels and videos up to 15 minutes long won't count towards this free storage limit. and Google will automatically resize photos for you when you upload them to Google+, so they stay under the free size limit. That means only photos uploaded directly to Picasa Web Albums over the 2048x2048 size will count towards the 1 GB of free storage, explains Google. and when that limit is reached, photos will be automatically resized. Meanwhile, for non-Google+ users, there are slightly stricter rules: photos up to 800x800 and videos up to 15 minutes won't count towards free storage. Again, when the 1 GB limit is reached, larger photos will be resized down. Simply put, this means that whether you're on Google+ or not, Picasa offers unlimited free storage for photos and videos (under 15 minutes). The difference is that Google+ users can upload higher resolution photos to Plus/Picasa without being penalized.

A recent study of Google+ showed that it is more popular with parents than students,  which could be a favorable indicator of how popular it is for those educators of the same generation.

One example of how teachers are using Google+ Pages to run their classrooms, is that of Mr. McDowell who teaches World History at West Hills High School. Mr. McDowell has made great use of Google’s tools to give students access to documents, schedules, presentations, videos and password protected areas like attendance and grade records.

access to Google+ tools and pages from any computer promotes interactivity on the site and is a big hit with educators