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"With its open-ended nature and robust creation tools, Minecraft has been used to create some amazing things. And as one teacher learned, those very same elements that make the game so compelling also make it a great educational tool.

Using Minecraft to solve problems as a class and learn how to work together.

Some good learning angles with this multiplayer Hamelin. Have used it myself :-)

Classroom teacher and technology educator shares a strategy for engaging teachers in effective professional development around technology integration. 

"Educators spend most of their time distanced from their colleagues. Instead of forcing them to compete with each other, we should help them find new ways to work together."

Online education is often dismissed as a pipeline for expensive degrees of little value and a sponge for veterans' tuition payments. But while it's true that for-profit universities have made a hefty business out of e-learning, it's becoming apparent that learning online can also benefit almost everyone else.

iPads for learning

Great blog chronicling the adventures of an iPad classroom in Alaska. Larry Mitchell, Badger Road ElementarySkip Via, UAF School of Education

Ideas for educational creative coding in the classroom.

Ideas for educational creative coding in the classroom.

"After six years of study, more than 3,000 student surveys, nearly 40 interviews, close to 700 anonymous written responses, and numerous observations of students in classes across four disciplines, Dr. Angel Hoekstra knows a thing or two about how to use clickers in the classroom."

a website to empower teachers to solve their own technology shortfalls by connecting classrooms with their communities using the Internet. A year later, www.digitalwish.org launched with a simple wish list feature and a few technology products. The need for classroom technology was so great that 1,000 teachers posted wishes in the first month. With such high demand, we began the process of turning Digital Wish into an official nonprofit organization.

a high school English teacher highlights three ways she and her colleagues are using Twitter to engage students in and outside of their classrooms. A variety of complexity and purposes represented.

Young students use Facebook in the classroom What do you think?

Poor idea. First of all, it models disrespect for terms of service: One item on Facebook's terms of service page says "You will not use Facebook if you are under 13." Second, we know from a growing body of psychological and neuroscience research that once people (esp young people) have developed friends networks, that they spend hours and hours of their time at home doing facebook, at the expense of real-time face-to-face socializing, exercise, and homework. The quality of work they do goes down dramatically when they switch back and forth from Facebook to their homework (the Facebooking activity impairs their ability to remember what they were doing before they switched). This can also contribute to sleep deprivation, which itself results in a whole host of poor health/cognitive problems. A better alternative: teaching kids alternative exciting ways of social networking and working collaboratively online that don't have the massive distraction factor of Facebook: teach them how to make flip videos and post them on drop box; teach them how to make wikis; use a Ning social network; teach them how to use Google Docs, forms, etc. Teach them how to use Diigo! Even teaching them how to twitter is a wiser idea. . . just.

"The new divide will be between those with wonder and curiosity and those without." "The world only cares what you can do with what you know," Couros said. He said he clashed with a teacher back home who complained that his approach would let students Google up the answers for her exams. His response: "If I can look up the answers to the questions on your test on Google, your questions suck."

A good list of ways Facebook can be used in the classroom.

Text your classroom. Broadcast updates to parents and students. Engage any student on any device - during or after school. Ask and answer questions, individually or with groups of students. Incorporate modern technology in your teaching safely and easily. Use ClassPager to instantly message everyone's phone - where you know they'll read it. Let ClassPager protect everyone's phone numbers while you manage everything easily from the web. Use ClassPager to run classroom polls in realtime. Confirm everyone's understanding.

This article explores various iPad apps that could "transform" the classroom.  

Great example of blogging in a third grade classroom

Great example of blogging in a third grade classroom.

"Once the group moved past testimonials of the power of social media, co-moderators Susan Bearden, Sharon Plante, and I helped everyone dig in to discuss how social media should be used effectively in the classroom and how to encourage more colleagues to drink from the river. Bring out your buckets and spoons! "

Nocera discusses "The New Republic" - a documentary film about teaching in a new Brooklyn high school (new in 2006), and the trials of learning classroom management in this trying environment.  His discussion focuses on the need to do a better job of training new teachers in classroom management.

Using QR Codes in the Classroom