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I have teachers ask me frequently about app recommendations for different subject areas. "What app could I use to teach subtraction?" "What app would you recommend for my students to practice writing?" "I want to use iPads in my Science class. What app is good for that?" I usually sigh to myself, when I receive questions like that. While I am not against in suggesting apps ( which I love doing), I am not comfortable with the level of disconnect between the teacher (who knows her/his students best) and the curriculum related skills and objectives and pedagogical relationship that needs to be in place for an app to be a match to use in a classroom or with an individual learner.

 The video below features a middle school student( 13 years old ) who is an avid online gamer. He talked about the things he learned via the help of his favourite online games including : Wrold War II, socializing with peers, sharing his interests, knowledge, skills, and thoughts with others.

"Current thinking (August 2012) around a web literacies framework by Doug Belshaw, Badges & Skills Lead for the Mozilla Foundation."

"CHILDREN who use 'text speak' when sending messages on their mobile phones do not have a poor grasp of grammar, a study has shown. Researcher assessed the spelling, grammar, understanding of English and IQ of primary and secondary schoolchildren and compared those skills with a sample of their text messages."

"The MakerBot Replicator™ is the ultimate personal 3D printer, with dual extrusion (2-color printing)--and a bigger printing footprint, giving you the superpower to print things BIG! Assembled in Brooklyn by skilled technicians, the MakerBot Replicator™ is ready within minutes to start printing right out of the box. "

Whether you are new to the computer, returning for review or just want to gain more 21st century skills, our free computer tutorials can help. From Computer Basics to Microsoft Office to Apple, we have a wide range of free computer tutorials to choose from.

"Its well known that giving easy digital content creation tools into the hands of more teachers and students is a great way to encourage focus on higher order thinking skills in the curriculum. For schools with Macs and iPads, the release of Apple's iBooks Author software in January made this even more possible. Attached to this post is 1.0 draft of a 'know-why' guide to using iBooks Author to make digital content thats localised and personalised just for your students. Download and enjoy, plus leave comments if you have questions or feedback. To load, just download directly onto an iPad with iBooks 2 installed, and tap 'open in iBooks', or download to your PC and sync via iTunes."

"We give students the tools to learn by themselves" Pedro Peixoto runs a company that teaches social media skills as a gateway to language learning. Is this method effective? Is greater global access to online resources blurring the boundaries between formal and informal education? Listen to what Peixoto has to say on our eLearning TV Channel.

inklewriter is a free tool designed to allow anyone to write and publish interactive stories. It's perfect for writers who want to try out interactivity, but also for teachers and students looking to mix computer skills and creative writing.

Making movies on a shoestring budget? No need hunting for talented actors, building a stage or even writing a script. A bit of clay or a toy can be the star of your animated masterpiece. Spending quality time with your kids? Watch them tap their creative potential and be amazed at what they create. iStopMotion for iPad is also ideal for use in the classroom and in all disciplines, honing creativity, problem-solving and communication skills in students of all ages.

Is pitching just a new "sexier" way to make decisions - does it actually achieve educated decision making? What skills are developed in those being pitched too - sounds like the Educational Dragon's Den!

"Quandary is a free, online game that engages your students in ethical decision-making and develops skills that will help them recognize ethical issues and deal with challenging situations in their own lives. This page brings together all the information you need to successfully implement Quandary as part of your teaching, including a handy teacher guide, classroom implementation video, lesson plan and worksheet. We've also mapped the game to the Common Core standards. And don't forget to head over to the teachers' forum to share your own ideas and discuss tips and techniques from other educators."

A slide presentation by Doug Belshaw and Tim Riches where they explain how the Mozilla Open Badges can verify and recognize skills and achievements. These are digital and an individual can be display them on various sites, be they job sites, social networking places, websites etc.

A great resource for many tools that would be suitable for classroom use. An obvious choice if these are tools businesses use, as teachers we MUST teach these skills.

A key component of the Plan is to create more and better opportunities for workers through skills development.

"Subtext is a free iPad app that allows classroom groups to exchange ideas in the pages of digital texts. You can also layer in enrichment materials, assignments and quizzes-opening up almost limitless opportunities to engage students and foster analysis and writing skills."

"Helpouts isn't available yet, but we're currently inviting people with expertise across a number of topics to be able to offer Helpouts when we go live - and to make money sharing their skills and knowledge with the world. If you haven't received an invitation, but are interested in Helpouts, tell us. We'll let you know when we're live and accepting more applications to give help."

From the Educational Technology and Mobile Learning blog - post "the apps cover a wide variety of skills including writing, presentation making, mind mapping, referencing, and many more. In fact, I could not offer you any better than this great list for back to school. "