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The NMC Horizon EdTech Weekly App delivers curated, relevant, and timely edtech projects and news to your iPad or iPhone every weekend. It also includes the entire NMC Horizon Report series on emerging technology across various learning sectors, and a rich, searchable, re-mixable database of educational technology and innovation resources. Whether you are in higher education, K-12, or the museum world, the NMC Horizon EdTech Weekly App delivers the best of the NMC Horizon Project.

"Brain Pickings is your LEGO treasure chest, full of pieces across art, design, science, technology, philosophy, history, politics, psychology, sociology, ecology, anthropology, you-name-itology. Pieces that enrich your mental pool of resources and empower you to combine them into original concepts that are stronger, smarter, richer, deeper and more impactful. Please enjoy."

Mobile learning is in the air, almost everyone realizes the potential, and some companies are now taking tentative first steps. While I haven't blogged in a while, I continue trawling through my RSS feeds, seeing more and more references to mobile learning, mlearning, performance support, 'just-in-time' and so many other terms that make sense in that context. Here are some interesting links I've come across recently, mostly about mobile learning and some about learning in general that I found interesting. Do note some of these link up to dated articles.

By using our Street View technology, Google has a unique opportunity to make world heritage sites available to users across the globe. Street View is a hugely popular feature of Google Maps which is already available in dozens of countries. It allows users to virtually explore and navigate a neighborhood through panoramic street-level images. With advancements in our camera technologies we can now go off the beaten track to photograph some of the most significant places in the world so that anyone, anywhere can explore them.

Polling, surveys, forms, and online assessments are wonderful tools. QuestionPress will take you one step further by giving you the LIVE interaction you want with your responders. QuestionPress will help you gather a digital show of hands and more, whether the responders are in the same room or across the globe. And since QuestionPress is web-based, it works on any Internet capable computer or device. Check out the many uses of QuestionPress

Occasionally there is a piece software that comes along which astonishes me that I can download it for free. We have been recently investigating the ability for our users to sync their docs with a cloud service, primarily for backup. We have looked at Google Drive, DropBox and SkyDrive and there are many others. All have advantages / disadvantages however there is one thing that none of them seem to do - local storage. We simply can't have 1,500 users all trying to sync to the Internet and expect it to work across our 50 meg pipe.  We need it to be stored locally, on one of our servers. Sure we'll need tons of storage and won't have intercontinental redundancy and failover, but let's be honest we are not backing up nuclear launch codes here. One large RAID 5 storage should do the trick.

When it comes to mobile learning myths and misconceptions abound. The mlearning domain is still new to many, so this confusion is to be expected. These myths are holding back widespread adoption of mobile learning in the workplace. Here is a list of the more common ones I come across. Also contrast with a list of myths we posted on this blog a couple of years ago.

This fall PenPal News is partnering middle and high school classrooms across the country for six weeks to discuss the important issues we face this election year. 

Via Richard Byrne "SugarSync is a cloud storage service that offers apps for iOS and Android. Using the apps you can take pictures of anything including those handwritten notes and upload them to your account. SugarSync synchronizes your files across all of your devices so that you can access your files anytime you are connected to the web."

The Federal Government has released a smartphone application to provide quick and easy access to information about emergencies and disasters across the country. The DisasterWatch app can be downloaded for free and contains the latest public information via a direct feed from emergency response teams in each state and territory.

"Tablets have quickly emerged as a distinct third digital screen in consumers lives that fill the gap between desktops and smartphones. But there are still many open questions about exactly how consumers are using them. We explored tablet search trends earlier this year, but wanted to dig deeper and answer key questions such as: What are the contrasts between tablet use, laptop use, and smartphone use and how are consumers engaging across these devices? What are the most common activities (playing games, searching, reading, etc.) that tablets are used for? What ads are most relevant and useful based on how people are using the devices? "

" A recent study at Illinois Wesleyan University found that fewer than 25% of students could perform a "reasonably well-executed search." Wrote researchers, "The majority of students - of all levels - exhibited significant difficulties that ranged across nearly every aspect of the search process." That search process also included determining when to rely on Google and when to utilize scholarly databases, but on a fundamental level, it appears that many people just don't understand how to best find the information they seek using Google. Thanks to the folks at HackCollege, a number of my "secrets" are out. The infographic below offers a helpful primer for how to best structure searches using advanced operators to more quickly and accurately drill down to the information you want. This is by no means an exhaustive list of search operators and advanced techniques, but it's a good start that will help set you on the path to becoming a Google master."

Learn the basics of computer programming with Daisy the Dinosaur! This free, fun app has an easy drag and drop interface that kids of all ages can use to animate Daisy to dance across the screen. Kids will intuitively grasp the basics of objects, sequencing, loops and events by solving this app's challenges.

"Search giant Google has revealed its Google Apps software as a service platform has been deployed to some 330,000 students, teachers and administrative staff at Catholic schools across Australia, in one of the largest local known rollouts of the platform so far."

Helping to make New Zealand digital content easy to find, share, and use. We aim to make New Zealand digital content more useful. This includes helping people use digital material from libraries, museums, government departments, publicly funded organisations, the private sector, and community groups. Use this site to: Find NZ digital material that is hidden or buried on the internet Search across more than 20 million digital items to discover New Zealand treasures such as amazing aerial photos, old posters and memorabilia, newspaper clippings, artworks, and publications. Items are contributed from partners including Te Papa, the Alexander Turnbull Library, Auckland Art Gallery, Te Ara, NZ On Screen and many many more.

'Compound Interest' is a blog run by a graduate chemist & teacher in the UK that aims to take a look at the chemistry and chemical reactions we come across on a day-to-day basis. As well as highlighting these facets of chemistry, it is also the site's objective to provide interesting & educational infographics on a variety of chemistry topics, both for use in the classroom and for more general consumption.""

"Parents across the globe today - from Lagos to Los Angeles and from Myanmar to Moscow - need to have a new conversation with their kids. No, it's not about how their kids are behaving in class, why they should never talk to strangers, or when they need to be home at night. It's not even the talk that parents usually brace themselves for, about sex. It's something new, something parents never considered as a critical issue 20 or 10 or even 5 years ago - but something that is just as pervasive as any of the other issues in their children's lives and, in so many ways, just as important. It's data permanence. How we can preserve our reputations in the digital era?"

"Subscribers should be cautious about using free wireless hotspots. In particular, you should avoid sending sensitive or personal information over these untrusted networks. Free wi-fi hotspots can be found in coffee shops and public establishments, offering convenient internet access over a wireless connection. You can connect to these hotspots using devices such as mobile phones or laptops with wireless capabilities. However, it is important to be aware that most of these hotspots are unsecured, meaning that all the information you send across them is vulnerable."

The Learning Record provides an architecture and process for documenting student progress and achievement, based on interviews, observations over time, samples of students' naturally-occurring work, and well-supported interpretations of learning across five dimensions.