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SNApps4Kids is a volunteer community of parents, therapists, doctors, and teachers who share information on how we are using the iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch and Android devices with children who have special needs. We have found these mobile devices to provide accessibility for children who may have been previously disengaged from the world because of challenging language, motor, or other developmental delays. Given the rising number of apps on the market and the diverse skills of children with special needs, parents have found each other to be one of the best resources for choosing apps to enhance everyday life for our children. While our group is primarily parent-driven, our efforts are naturally collaborative with the people who help our children develop particular skills - therapists and educators.

A really life investing game to simulate property investment

This is the site to watch for open badge concept in life long learning. Will it catch on as a real "community college" accreditation concept?

"There is one iOS "tip" that I keep hearing and it is wrong. Worse, I keep hearing it from supposedly authoritative sources. I have even heard it from the lips of Apple "Geniuses" in stores. Here is the advice - and remember it is wrong: All those apps in the multitasking bar on your iOS device are currently active and slowing it down, filling the device's memory or using up your battery. To maximise performance and battery life, you should kill them all manually. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. There are caveats to this but anyone dispensing the advice above is clearly uninformed enough that they will certainly not be aware of these subtleties."

New report released August 2012 "Business and political leaders are increasingly asking schools to integrate development of skills such as problem solving, critical thinking, and collaboration into the teaching and learning of academic subjects. Collectively these skills are often referred to as "21st century skills" or "deeper learning." Education for Life and Work: Developing Transferable Knowledge and Skills in the 21st Century, a new report from the National Research Council, more clearly defines these terms and lays the groundwork for policy and further research in the field."

"Life is more than just numbers. In GRID: pictures, movies, people, locations and many more things are kinda of a big deal. Grid allows you to organize and work with them in a whole new intuitive way."

"Wave a Microsoft Kinect sensor around the object you want to inhabit and the new system, developed by Jiawen Chen and his team from Microsoft Research in Cambridge, UK, quickly creates a 3D virtual model of it. Then, by standing in front of the sensor and positioning your body so that it melds with the virtual character on screen, the two are rigged together by uttering the word "Possess". The system performs the transformation by binding the model to you at the points where your joints are attached. Moving your body makes the avatar come to life, allowing you to re-enact Fantasia-like cartoons or to create your own interactive stories. It's also possible to team up with friends to possess more complex bodies, like a four-legged horse."

"This is my first attempt at blogging. I want to write about iPads in schools ( a crowded blogosphere there) from real world experience. I want to share how Web tools can change education. I want to write what I believe ( not what I'm expected to believe ), hopefully by thinking before I post. I want to get our students inspired to write by blogging themselves so they can see writing has a real purpose beyond file books and NAPLAN assessments! I want to inspire and encourage my own colleagues ( and hopefully others outside my school ) to take a chance and think outside the comfort zone of the 20th Century where I began my life as a teacher." This URL is the iPad category of Mr G Online.

The future after physical existence ends. Great video  for challenging student thinking about the future.

This is an interesting SMORE related to Edmodo is a social learning network that is safe for students and FREE for teachers! With a "Facebook-like" look, it's sure to grab your students' attention and get them excited about learning. This session will explain what Edmodo is, how you and your students create accounts, and give real-life examples of Edmodo in action. I'll show you how to assign and grade work in Edmodo and give advice on best practices, as well as share permission forms and roll-out materials. Whether you teach first grade or fifth, this is a resource you will definitely want in your technology toolkit!

"Although statistics show that the use of the Internet by adults is high and continues to rise,3 McGrath (2009) suggested that young people use technology in a different way to adults - adult use tends to be for more practical or business purposes, whereas for young people, technology is a vital part of their social life and identity development."

"Google does let you opt out, and every Gmail user will get an email from the company notifying them and pointing them to the privacy settings when the feature goes live. Here's what those privacy settings look like:"

"95% of Millennials claim to have taken action to protect their online privacy, which is good. Everyone needs to be looking after themselves, especially on the internet, since identity theft is a thing. That still blows my mind. Someone can take your life away over the internet. At least 95% of the Millennials are safe, right?"

"Explore 13.7 billion years of shared history and consider the big questions about our Universe, our planet, life, and humanity. From the big bang to modern day to where we are going in the future, big history covers it all."

"Looking like a cross between ski goggles and Ray-Bans, Meta SpaceGlasses allow wearers to see and interact with virtual objects in 3D space with their hands. Wearers can see the non-existent objects thanks to tiny projectors in the glasses, while sensors detect hands and allow interaction."

"What does 2014 hold for your online life? If you're young, it probably won't involve Facebook that much. This year marked the start of what looks likely to be a sustained decline of what had been the most pervasive of all social networking sites. Young people are turning away in their droves and adopting other social networks instead, while the worst people of all, their parents, continue to use the service."

"The days of internet searches being a matter of typing words into a box on a web page may be numbered. Even the expressions "search it" and "Google it" could soon go out of fashion, just as "going online" is already passe because these days we're always connected. Steven Weitz, senior director of search for Microsoft's search engine Bing wants our physical and virtual worlds to merge to a point where we will be able to stand on a street corner and the answer to "where am I?" will bring up not only the street name but historic and tourist information, places to eat as recommended by our friends and the best public transport option to get to an appointment on time."

"ScratchJr is an introductory programming language that enables young children (ages 5-7) to create their own interactive stories and games. Children snap together graphical programming blocks to make characters move, jump, dance, and sing. Children can modify characters in the paint editor, add their own voices and sounds, even insert photos of themselves - then use the programming blocks to make their characters come to life."

Thanks for sharing this link John. I have recorded my interest with the developers to keep me informed. I love using Scratch with my grade 4s. As you'd know - the new Digital Technologies curric emphasises programming, so Scratch Jr will be a welcome addition. Seems as though currics around the world are picking up on kids programming. Cheers - Chris Trimnell

Solve For X is a place to hear about and discuss radical technology ideas for solving global problems. Radical in the sense that the solutions could help millions or billions of people. Radical in the sense that the audacity of the proposals makes them sound like science fiction. And radical in the sense that there is some real technology breakthrough on the horizon indicating that these ideas could really be brought to life.

"Good stories do more than explain the what, they show the why. They answer the question: "Why is this important to me and my life?" In a noisy world of bland advertisements and pitches, we want to tell the best stories about things that are making a difference in people's lives."

via @rmbyrne