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"Fraser Speirs is a busy man. Having convinced Cedars School of Excellence in Greenock, Scotland to buy more than 100 iPads and distribute them to all its students (age 5-17) earlier this year for class and homework, the private school's head of IT is traveling around the United States to talk about his school's experience with the Apple tablet."

1:1 school with a tablet computer, it is happening already now.

Interesting article that causes reflection on pedagogy and practice vs. tools and toys

"Those of us who are social media-savvy suffer from a burgeoning problem that constantly threatens our ingenuity. If we fail to acknowledge and solve this problem, our brilliant ideas may may never see the light of day."

I learned that a Google search will now yield results by reading level. We  can check out search results that are designated either basic, intermediate or advanced.

"Digital storytelling comes in many forms. Digital storytelling could refer to creating podcasts, creating videos, or creating multimedia ebooks to name of few of its forms. If you're considering developing your first digital storytelling project for your class, here some resources that can help you get started."

"Companies who want to know more about prospective employees can learn a lot by checking their Facebook profiles, according to a new study. Jennifer Golbeck and colleagues at the University of Maryland surveyed the public profiles of nearly 300 Facebook users for information about their favourite activities, TV shows, movies, music, books, quotes, and membership in political or other organisations. They also looked at the "About Me" and "blurb" sections. The work did not include status updates or other data that is only available to users' online friends."

"Our infographic to end the week is one of the better ones I've run across recently. It's about data centers, one of the more talked about topics in recent months. This one explores power consumption by making comparisons between standard usage and what can be accomplished with more efficient technologies."

This year, Gartner is adding big data, Internet of Things, gamification and consumerization to the Hype Cycle that weren't present in 2010. According to Gartner, private cloud computing has reached the peak level of hype, and cloud/Web platforms are slipping into the "trough of disillusionment" in the face of Platform as a Service (PaaS).

"So it's mid-August and for many teachers the new school year has begun and for others it's not too far away. Some of you will be starting at new schools and with that there's a chance that you'll be coming to terms with a new interactive whiteboard. You may already be familiar with whiteboards already, and are just starting at a school with a different brand. Either way, here's a summary of blogposts I've written in the past that hopefully will prove useful to you."

After Google+ entered the social networking scene not so long ago, the number of online distractions hasn't really decreased. At the same time, innovations and smarter solutions to handle your actions online have fortunately continued to thrive too. Instead of the usual to-do lists, news readers, or sharing tools, they tackle things in new and more helpful ways. What's most important for me, is that they slot right into my workflow, and allow me to become more efficient without changing my behavior. A few apps recently managed to do so brilliantly. Here are my favorite new tools to help you stay focused and use the Web more innovatively.

"So you and your students use the Internet everyday, but are you fluent in its language? Perhaps you've found yourself listening to a "techy" conversation where the terms IP, DNS, or PHP were being used and you wanted to know what those terms mean. What is an IP address? What is a DNS record? And just who is in charge of the Internet? Get answers to those questions and many more in Make Use Of's free ebook How the Internet Works."

An article about YouTube's new live streaming function

"Up until earlier, I wasn't all that interested in the iPad Camera Connection Kit. However, I learned that one of the attachments can be used to hook up musical instruments and microphones to your device. Now that is seriously cool. However, it has other uses, as I discovered today! With the camera kit, you can plug many USB headsets right into the USB port of the iPad. Certain USB keyboards apparently work, as well."

"I have never been a big fan of the Interactive Whiteboards (IWB). We continually cry for more student-centric problem-based learning curriculum and then we introduce these BIG TICKET devices to maintain the teacher's control of the classroom. Where is the sense in that? We need to provide a system where the control is in the students' hands. That IS the definition of student-centric."