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An updated publication designed to help training teachers on ways to optimize the use of information and communication technologies in the classroom has been launched early November 2011 by UNESCO in cooperation with the Commonwealth of Learning, Intel and Microsoft. The ICT Competency Framework for Teachers aims at helping countries to develop comprehensive national teacher ICT competency policies and standards, and should be seen as an important component of an overall ICT in Education Master Plan.

Looking at the New Directions for school leadership and the teaching profession discussion paper, the only evidence presented to support the assertion that Victoria's education outcomes are not improving is the report "Challenges in Australian Education: results from PISA 2009: the PISA 2009 assessment of students' reading, mathematical and scientific literacy" Specifically the New Directions paper focuses on reading literacy, where in 2009, 14,251 students were given a two-hour pen and paper comprehension test. To get an idea of what types of competencies the reading test is assessing we can look at the sample test , with questions range from comprehension about a letter in a newspaper, the ability to interpret a receipt, comprehension around a short story, an informational text, and interpreting a table. While it doesn't seem unreasonable to want our students to be able to accurately perform these kind of tasks, these tests are not a true or accurate representation of the skills and competencies our students need in today's technology driven world.

"In the Australian Curriculum students develop ICT competence as they learn to use ICT effectively and appropriately when investigating, creating and communicating ideas and information at school, at home, at work and in their communities.

The issue of cyber bullying of school children goes to the zeitgeist of our age. It is a collision point between three competing forces: educating our children to be responsible, autonomous individuals; the intervention of the state; and the seemingly unfathomable reach of technology. This week the new Commonwealth Director of Cyber Safety Policy and Programs. begins sifting through the many submissions responding to the government's cyber safety discussion paper. Twenty years ago who would have even imagined such a position would need to exist?

The issue of cyber bullying of school children goes to the zeitgeist of our age. It is a collision point between three competing forces: educating our children to be responsible, autonomous individuals; the intervention of the state; and the seemingly unfathomable reach of technology. This week the new Commonwealth Director of Cyber Safety Policy and Programs. begins sifting through the many submissions responding to the government's cyber safety discussion paper. Twenty years ago who would have even imagined such a position would need to exist?

"A little over a year ago, Google officially changed the name of its Docs app to Drive and gave users cloud storage to compete with Dropbox. While so far the search giant has yet to dethrone the incumbent, the service does have one distinct advantage over the competition: a wide array of extensions and apps that integrate directly into the service."

"This is definitely one of the coolest uses of Google+ that I have seen in a long time. Hangout Quest is a Google+ game that allows you to go on a virtual scavenger hunt inside the Palace of Versailles. The object of the scavenger hunt is to find artwork and other objects in the palace. If you invite others to your Hangout you can compete against them in a race to find the objects first."

"I was thinking today that I had to make it clear that competency with technology is not the first issue you should worry about if you want to make SAMR progress. The issue to tackle first is the teaching conventions and mindsets amongst the staff, and for this you need some pretty simple and effective arguments. So here are some I've used to move staff on a little:"

"Imagine a way on Google+ to tailor and deliver the 'right messages to the right people, at the right time...' Well, this is exactly what we have created! The quick video will show you a demo of a programmable desktop notification, and 'badging system' to follow soon  - meaning you can e.g. attribute different 'levels of competence' to people in a community, and deliver unique content to specifically them."

"The Buck Institute for Education commissioned the cutting-edge advertising agency, Common Craft, to create a short animated video that explains in clear language the essential elements of Project Based Learning (PBL). This simple video makes the essential elements of PBL come alive and brings to light the 21st Century skills and competencies (collaboration, communication, critical thinking) that will enable K-12 students to be college and work-ready as well as effective members of their communities."

A great Slideshare looking at QR Codes from the marketing point of view. The presentation contains a great explanation of the makeup of a QR code as well as examples of good and not so good uses in marketing. It also looks at other types of codes that compete with QR codes.

Filament Games is a game production studio that exclusively creates learning games. Our core competency is producing games that combine best practices in commercial game development with key concepts from the learning sciences. Accordingly, our senior staff is comprised of individuals who are equal parts game and instructional designers; a "dual literacy" that allows us to engineer authentic gameplay mechanics (rules and interactions that directly correlate with specific learning objectives). Filament Games was founded in 2005 by education technology expert Dan White, game designer Dan Norton, and software engineer Alex Stone. In the time since, Filament has developed over 30 educational games for clients ranging from National Geographic's JASON Science to Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's iCivics Inc.

A curated Global Education site that will bring resources to educators to address global awareness, skills, literacies and competencies in their schools and classroom.

This site could be a good springboard for a future episode - when does it arrive.

As digital transactions become the definitive method of purchasing goods and services, leading eCommerce firms are exploring how AI can enhance brand competitiveness and customer loyalty. Artificial Intelligence is set to be a game-changer to shape the next stage of the e-commerce evolution. Artificial intelligence provides passel of opportunities to the e-commerce industry where retailers compete to provide the maximum customer convenience, by providing the ultimate shopping experience. With continuous advances in digital voice technology, AI tools such as Alexa, Cortana, and Watson, are gracing headlines almost daily, hinting at the wide scope of opportunities it has to revolutionize eCommerce stores. Here we show 6 amazing applications to use Artificial Intelligence in eCommerce. * Create customer-centric search- By implementing Artificial intelligence in Magento creates purchase assistants that target the right users, with the right messages at the right time.AI programs can rely on self-learning algorithms to deconstruct Bigdata of thousands of customers and create targeted user experiences, hence ruling out any human-bias or error. * Context-based search- Product Search functionality is an integral part of a Magento store as the shopping process begins with the search for relevant products. If Magento individualizes some impressive extensions, they might be nothing as compared to the effectiveness of AI-powered searches. Here usual searches rely on the Keywords entered by the user and only when there is a correct match, your searches will dish out the right search results. But AI-powered product searches will look for the context of the search, utilize the capability of Natural Language Process to generate context-based search terms rather than typical keywords. * Facilitate Purchase Decisions- Purchase Assistants are something that is still not fully released. Using the concept of virtual Purchase assistant we can cut down the time spent by shoppers

All NEW Honor View 10. This brings another premium smartphone to a market that is already dominated by Apple, Samsung And OnePlus. Will Honor be able to steal away some of those die-hard Apple, Samsung And OnePlus fans? Only time will tell.

All NEW Honor View 10. This brings another premium smartphone to a market that is already dominated by Apple, Samsung And OnePlus. Will Honor be able to steal away some of those die-hard Apple, Samsung And OnePlus fans? Only time will tell.

Check out the Upside Down Blooms info

"The first thing that stands out upon arrival at Hellerup School, where 640 students between the ages of 6 and 16 study on the former site of the Tuborg brewery in Denmark, is the absence of a fence separating the school from the street. Inside, there is no office to greet visitors. Instead, small shoes litter the floor and children of all ages sprawl on couches doing homework, play foosball or run about the open space that substitutes for classrooms. "

"The web is for everyone so, in essence, this web literacies paper is also for everyone. It is, however, likely to be of particular use and value to educators and academics looking for a reference point and framework to help develop web literacies in themselves and others. When we mention 'we' in this white paper we're talking about not only about Mozilla, but the community of people who believe in Connected Learning, and who believe in learning through making and doing. We're people who believe in the practical application of knowledge through project-based and interest-based learning."