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We tend to rewrite the histories of technological innovation, making myths about a guy who had a great idea that changed the world. In reality, though, innovation isn't the goal; it's everything that gets you there. It's bad financial decisions and blueprints for machines that weren't built until decades later. It's the important leaps forward that synthesize lots of ideas, and it's the belly-up failures that teach us what not to do. When we ignore how innovation actually works, we make it hard to see what's happening right in front of us today. If you don't know that the incandescent light was a failure before it was a success, it's easy to write off some modern energy innovations - like solar panels - because they haven't hit the big time fast enough. Worse, the fairy-tale view of history implies that innovation has an end. It doesn't. What we want and what we need keeps changing. The incandescent light was a 19th-century failure and a 20th- century success. Now it's a failure again, edged out by new technologies, like LEDs, that were, themselves, failures for many years. That's what this issue is about: all the little failures, trivialities and not-quite-solved mysteries that make the successes possible. This is what innovation looks like. It's messy, and it's awesome.

StudyEgg is a new tool that can be used to augment already existing educational content on the Internet by adding new learning features. With StudyEgg teachers can create quizzes based on YouTube videos like Khan Academy or any other freely available lesson/material. GradeCam enables teachers to grade assignments instantly with any document camera or webcam, no special tools needed. The data is then displayed, showing the teacher if all students understood the concepts. Tests can be created on the go to check what students have learned instead of testing them days or weeks later. GradeCam then lets users import the data easily into the gradebook service,  Always Prepped combines different educational resources and services like Khan Academy, Edmodo or Study Island and puts all the learning related data of the students into one unified dashboard. Also able to add non-educational data such as social data to the dashboard. For example, if the teacher knows that the parents of a particular student are getting divorced or that a grandparent has died, the teacher is able to add this information to the data set and can see immediately whether the performance in class might somewhat be related to the happenings in the student's personal life.

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. 

"It can help to start out by asking yourself some important questions, such as "What can the iPad do that is not possible without it? Put another way, what problems does the iPad solve?" But the learning environment you're starting with can make a big difference as well. It's one thing to come up with individual lesson plans high on the wiz-bang factor, but low in terms of sustainability. Below are 4 distinct areas of instruction and instructional design that can help frame the concept of iPad integration. Curriculum, Instruction, Assessment, and Integration."

"You may know what a VPN, or Virtual Private Network, is; you probably don't use one. You really should be using a VPN, and even if you don't think so now, at some point in the future you may consider it as important as your internet connection. When we took at look at your five favorite VPN service providers, we noticed a few things. First, being the "best" is big business for VPN providers, and they'll fight dirty to be one of them. Second, there are so many VPN providers that it's difficult to choose a really good one. VPNs are not all created equally, and in this post, we're going to look at what a VPN is, why you want one, and how to pick the best one for you. Let's get started."

"Google Docs can now be exported from the Google Takeout menu, thanks to Google's Data Liberation Front. Previously, users could export and import documents in various formats, but they are now available alongside data from all other Google services in Takeout. Google Takeout was unveiled in summer 2011. It allows Google users to export all their Google data to disk or just data from individual services. It's all thanks to the Data Liberation Front team, which builds tools to give Google users control over their data."

"Google understands the importance of finding the right information at the right time. We create tools to let you find the information you need, of the kind you need, when you need it. In most cases, a simple search works really well. But for more specialized questions, a bit of instruction in how to search improves all searcher--from middle school students to trained professionals--and lets you discover and use more, higher quality sources than ever before."

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.

The report from the trial - "iPads for Learning" conducted by Victorian DEECD. Not overly comprehensive for such an important trial.

This would be great to show students how important password selection is.

"Privacy issues are a very hot topic for anyone using social media. As educators, I believe it is our responsibility to teach our students the ins and outs of how to responsibly use social media. ...... I believe social media is important for educators and students. But I also believe it must be used responsibly and that cannot be accomplished without knowing the intricacies of social media privacy. Take a look at this infographic from MDG about the sad state of social media privacy."

"The Little Data Book 2013 is the pocket edition of World Development Indicators 2013. It is intended as a quick reference for users of the World Development Indicators database, book, and mobile app. The Little Data Book 2013 contains 55 key development indicators such as population and population growth, GNI, GDP, GDP growth, exports and imports, and gross capital formation, deforestation, water use, energy use and electricity use per capita; and more."

Lots of real world data to interrogate in many different ways

"With the rise of the blended learning model of education, video is becoming an increasingly important medium for instruction. The essential components of blended learning - such as flipped classrooms, MOOCs and "Bring Your Own Device" programs - are facilitated by video instruction to ensure the personalization and flexibility of a digitized education system"

ABC Zoom is a browser-based game primarily aimed at year 9 and 10 students to bring back the fun in science learning. The core objective is to engage, via gameplay, with the fundamentals of charge and electromagnetic radiation, and gain a sense of their importance in the world around us.

"As teachers are seeing more and more iPads in education and either using their own devices or being given a teacher iPad or a class set, it is important to realize what the iPad is and what it isn't."

"Google Drive is one of the fundamental tools in our digital toolkits as teachers and educators. Whether you want to compose a document, create a presentation,  design a sheet, or share a beautiful drawing you made, Google Drive provides you with the tools to do that on any device and anywhere you are with an internet connection . Given this huge importance of Google Drive for teachers, I have created an entire section here packed full of tips, tricks, ideas, and third party tools to enable you to better tap into the full educational potential of this platform."

"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."

"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

"Sometimes you have to sit to take a stand. We sit to inspire women in computing and IT. We sit to recognize the value of women's technical contributions. We sit to embrace women's important perspectives and increase their participation. Imagine designing technology that is as broad and creative as the people it serves."