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This whole article is essential reading 

What does this teach us about the nature of the education beast? Yelling won't always work even if you have a big stick. On the other hand, adapting to your environment, not backing down and giving up on your students will promote your own survival.

An animated movie of the big bang.

Key Trends Accelerating Higher Ed Tech Adoption inc social media and big data; Significant Challenges inc low digital fluency of faculty and keeping education relevant; Important Developments in Ed Tech inc learning analytics, "quantified self" and virtual assistants

"As learners, we are sometimes challenged (not often enough fortunately) to think big.  We are able to ask the question 'what if' when looking at a challenge.  We are tasked with redesigning, recreating, reimagining or rethinking the entire thing.  Maybe these are more 22nd century ideas. Well, when it comes to our high school system and overall student experience, here are my suggestions:" (Get ready for some out of the box ideas)

One way of structuring your research task

"Alternative and contemporary version of the Three Little Pigs from the Guardian newspaper. The story slowly unfolds as new information is produced. Use in lessons to focus on evidence and plot twists."

"Google and Stanford are more than just neighbors in Silicon Valley. They're becoming the leaders in the online learning revolution. And it's all happening fast and starting right about … now. Stanford, like Google, has now announced a free and open source platform that lets you run your very own Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Stanford's platform, dubbed Class2Go, has big and slightly different aspirations from its competitors. Developed as a non-profit project by eight Stanford Computer Science engineers, Class2Go is meant to offer not only a course-like project but also tools for collaborative research. The latter functionality is a change from what Google, edX, Coursera, and others are offering right now."

"n brief, because there are a lot of tricky steps to get oil from inside the Earth to inside, say, your gas tank. Oil spills can be caused by the accidental or intentional release of any form of petroleum during any point in the oil production process, from drilling, refining, or storing to transporting. Oil can be spilled when a pipeline breaks, ships collide or are grounded (as happened earlier this month along the Great Barrier Reef), underground storage tanks leak, or in the current case, when an oil rig explodes or is damaged. IN PICTURES: Big Environmental Disasters Some oil was spilled when the Deepwater Horizon rig first burst into flames on April 20 in the Gulf, injuring crew members and sending a billowing plume of black smoke into the sky that could be seen by satellite. The oil rig, located about 51 miles (82 kilometers) southeast of Venice, La., then sank into the Gulf waters Thursday morning, creating concern that more oil could spill. Oil spills can also happen naturally: Oil is released into the ocean from natural oil seeps on the seafloor. The best known such seep is Coal Oil Point along the California coast where an estimated 2,000 to 3,000 gallons (7,570 to 11,400 liters) of crude oil is released each day."

The ICTmagic Advent Calendar is back for 2012! Get a new Christmas resource, activity or game to use in your class every day in December up to the big day.

Great article on learning in a more facilitated environment and teaching students to ask questions and think deeply. It isn't about the technology. That is just the vehicle.

John Kotter wrote the books (literally) on how to lead change. He laid out six important areas for effecting change: creating a sense of urgency, creating a compelling vision, forming a guiding coalition, communicating widely to gain alignment, gaining short-term wins and momentum, and integrating the changes into the culture.  His advice is invaluable for understanding the process and leadership of change.

. So you can see why a boring environment having a more powerful thinning effect on the brain cortex than an exciting or enriched environment has on cortex thickening is a big deal.

Are you contending with the idea that your institution is a brand? Are you interested in what it means to take this idea seriously, using social media to follow how a brand gets dismantled? Here's a case study from higher ed.

I've started creating a table of important skills, some derived from the Padagogy Wheel, and actions, some derived from iPad As… What I am planning to highlight is that there are many apps that can be use for many purposes and for developing many skills. For example, I have already added "Explain Everything" to 9 categories as I see it as a multifunctional app and one worth its price because of the educational benefits it provides. Over the coming months I plan to add text descriptions to each category to explain how the apps listed address the skill or action they have been linked to and may also link them to other online sources that show them in action. I'll also provide direct links to the App Store, as I always do on this blog when I mention apps so you can check them out yourself if you want. Now this sounds like a big task and it is. So I do need some help. What do I want from you? Anything you can give. Just add them to the comments of this post. Examples of apps that help to develop specific skills Additional skills I haven't listed here Examples of apps that are multifunctional. Explanations of good pedagogical practice with apps. Don't worry, all credit will go to you when I include your suggestions. Links to blog posts, websites, Youtube tutorials, open wikis, nings etc that promote good practice that I can link to from here. Examples on add ons like bookmarklets for curation sites, websites that work well with iPads ( Flash-free) that can still be categorised under these headings for iPad use. Spread the word regularly through Twitter, Facebook, Curation sites like Pinterest and Scoop-It to keep educators coming back.