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"The Internet might not be the place to send young people quite as easily as a few years ago. I realise this conflicts with the whole 'get a personal learning network/connected teacher' rhetoric - but I'm pretty sure those things are more concerned with creating advertising funnels for particular products and services than actually re-imagining how learning could work for millions of people. So apart from the fact you want to stay open-minded and allowed to think for yourself as a teacher - why else it is now more valid than ever to to think twice about 'getting onboarded'. The late adopter might just be the smart ones after all."

Digital classroom tools like computers, tablets and smartphones offer exciting opportunities to deepen learning through creativity, collaboration and connection, but those very devices can also be distracting to students.

Central to the ethos of Anipix Animation Academy is its unwavering dedication to providing students with comprehensive knowledge and practical skills in animation. Led by a team of industry experts and seasoned professionals, Anipix ensures that students receive the highest quality of education and training. Through a meticulously crafted curriculum that blends theoretical understanding with hands-on experience, students are empowered to explore the depths of their creativity and develop mastery in 2D & 3D animation, as well as visual effects. What sets Anipix apart is its proactive approach to preparing students for success in the competitive animation industry. Beyond technical instruction, the academy offers a range of industry-oriented programs designed to equip students with the skills, insights, and connections needed to thrive in today's animation landscape. From industry-relevant projects and collaborative initiatives to guest lectures by leading professionals, Anipix provides students with a holistic learning experience that extends far beyond the classroom.

"A feature that has long been request by educators has finally arrived in iPad 2: video mirroring. Video mirroring shows exactly what's on your device's screen on a second display, like a projector, television, or monitor. We're used to video mirroring with laptops--many teachers do this everyday. iPad 2 requires either the Apple VGA Adapter or Apple Digital AV Adapter. The VGA adapter connects to most projectors while the digital adapter connects to HDMI, which is common on newer televisions. Apple Digital AV Adapter also outputs sound while the VGA adapter outputs only video to the display."

"This year, our K-6 staff began learning in a new virtual way using Twitter. After a couple staff in-service trainings and after school workshops, parents and teachers ventured into this new educational Twitterverse. As we enter the final week of school, I'd like to share it's initial impact on teaching and learning from my principal's lens."

Educators have always needed to master the understanding of at least two fields of endeavor to be successful. First, they needed to master their content field. They are required to be experts of content. Second, they needed to master the field of education with a clear understanding of the latest and greatest methodology and pedagogy available. The 21st Century has now further complicated the teaching profession by requiring an additional third area of mastery, digital literacy. This is required to accomplish many of the necessary tasks in the space occupied by our nation in a computer-driven world. It is the mastery of this third element that educators struggle with today. It is this third element that also directly affecting the evolution of content and education.

An great reflective post from Matt Esterman on the benefits of connected learning and how it can benefit us all as learners.

"LIKE many privacy-minded parents of elementary students, Tony Porterfield tries to keep close tabs on the personal information collected about his two sons. So when he heard that their school district in Los Altos, Calif., had adopted Edmodo, an online learning network connecting more than 20 million teachers and students around the world, he decided to check out the program."

Below you will find a collaboratively written document produced in Bangkok, Thailand, at the March 28-31 teacher's meeting of EARCOS, the East Asia Regional Council of Schools.  EARCOS is an organization of 130 primary and secondary schools that primarily use English as the language of instruction.  These include AP and IB schools and a number of other private schools.  We produced the document below on a public Google doc at a workshop, which I structured on the model of an "innovation challenge" of the kind that web developers use to bring together communities to complete a project.  We hope this guide will be useful to any teacher confronting the challenges of introducing new technologies into the K-12 classroom in meaningful, inventive, productive, creative, and connected ways.

"The BlendSynch project explores solutions to connect twenty-first century students with twenty-first century higher education. Uniting face-to-face and remote learners through rich-media real-time collaboration tools"

You have been able to create graphic organizers with Google Drawings. for a while. Graphic organizers are a great tool to share information, explain a concept, or illustrate a relationship using elements including images, shapes, text, colors, and connecting lines. They are useful in education over a wide range of year levels and learning ares. There are many useful tools for creating graphic organizers and teachers should investigate them to see which ones best fit their needs. This post explains how to use Google Drawings, with directions on how to create graphic organizers using this tool. It includes a help guide and a recorded webinar as well as 30 free sample graphic organizers that you can copy, use, and modify as needed.

online community for the Learning Technologies Conference (LT2008)

Some ideas around why we created @motmedu Looking for a conference with a difference? What story do you have to tell? The #motm13 Unconference is built around stories for the purpose of making strong connections with other passionate educators who are integrating ICT with pedagogy.

Some interesting apps here to support the teaching of Mathematics. I have used Dragonbox+ its awesome for teaching Algebra. Great for high flying grade 6's to year 8's Developers have introduced a greater range of apps across all areas of the Maths curriculum that can be used to enhance the Maths teaching and learning in your classroom. Here's a selection of 20 apps that cover Number and Algebra, Measurement and Geometry, and Statistics and Probability ( these are the Content strands (CS) Australia's Mathematics curriculum has been categorized under ). They also cover the proficiency strands (PS) of Understanding, Fluency, Problem Solving and Reasoning. I'm sure other countries' curricula are similar in many regards and you will be able to make the connections.

Make: Projects is a living library for makers, a how-to community hosted by MAKE magazine. Here you can build something from our growing cookbook of projects, tweak existing projects to improve them, share your own step-by-step instructions, discover new ideas and techniques, and learn how to make just about anything. And it's a wiki, so everything is hackable. Connect with the collective smarts of the maker community!

An interesting piece on George Siemens and Connectivism. Good background to MOOC's and how the original concept is different from that offered by companies such as Coursera and edX.

"The four tools mentioned are free and available for smartphones, tablets and laptop/desktop computers.This means that anyone can use them to create or complete work or connect with others. These are dynamic and comprehensive tools that can improve teaching and learning in the classroom. The tools discussed are: Edmodo, Curriculet; ClassDojo; Khan Academy.