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"Parents have taken over Facebook and, to a lesser extent, Twitter. This has sent device-laden students flocking to social media apps such as Instagram, SnapChat and Yik Yak, and the shift has created new challenges for administrators trying to root out cyberbullying and threats of violence. Garnering the most concern in many districts is Yik Yak, a free app created in 2013 that connects users within a 10-mile radius to a message board, and allows anyone to read and post anonymously. The app, meant for college students, is blocked on most K12 campuses thanks to technology called geofencing."

After consideration by district technology coordinator John Haubner and other administrators, and @MessnerEnglish became our class Twitter account. It's essential that the teacher emphasize responsible use by students. Probably the most important piece is close monitoring of students by the teacher.

Good case for securing permission to access Twitter in the classroom with some notes how it should be used.

''If you like, it's the Google for schools

"The software that provides it, called AudioFeeds, announces Facebook updates such as friend requests with watery sounds like drips, bubbles and splashes. Bird calls are reserved for Twitter, while musical sounds such as a didgeridoo or wind chime alert you to news stories. It achieves the 3D effect by adjusting the phase, or timing, of the sounds delivered to your left and right earphones."

Here is a thought, what if we had something similar in the classroom to provide audio feedback to the teacher. Fascinating thought.

"But what convinced me that I truly was wrong about the iPad and its prospects for the future weren't the reports coming in about its tremendous retail success. That could still be accounted for by initial fervor for a new product by Apple, which, few will argue, has become the "it" company of late. No, it was a few select apps that convinced me that the iPad was here to stay, and that that was a good thing. Below are those apps, along with why I think they're serious game-changers. "

Air Video is great, this is an awesome app. I have used it to share videos off my laptop for students to view on the iPad. Nice summary of cool iPad Apps that are serious game-changers.

Good article, I also love air video for the ipad although I am a big fan of Zumocast, too :)

Semantic Web technologies have immense potential to transform the Internet into a distributed reasoning machine that will not only execute extremely precise searches, but will also have the ability to analyze the data it finds to create new knowledge. This paper examines the state of Semantic Web (also known as Linked Data) tools and infrastructure to determine whether semantic technologies are sufficiently mature for non-expert use, and to identify some of the obstacles to global Linked Data implementation.

"Sending small cameras to ultra-high altitudes with weather balloons is a do-it-yourself craze these days and today's activities have more of a "let's see what happens" feel than any rigorous product testing. The team, made up of Google engineers and students from the University of California, Santa Cruz, is mainly curious to see how well the phone's sensors cope with a freezing cold near-vacuum."

Google Nexus now joins the list of iPHones and digital cameras that have been raised into near earth orbit by students. All that remains is to slingshot one into space with a big rubber band .. or for one to land in my back yard :-)

EdNA: Awareness, perception and needs of first year teachers

Interesting article looking at Bloom's Taxonomy applied to the digital world.