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A range of digital tools are listed that will allow students to reflect or comment on issues or put their own point of view. They are listed under headings such as writing, multimedia, speaking, performing/directing and artistic expression. Each offers a discussion about the strategy, the tools that could be used and ideas about measuring success.

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.

A new tool to organise student goals. Similar intuitive layout to Facebook, you can set goals for students, have other teachers set goals for the same student and invite parents to view progress. In beta but looks useful!

Awesome blog post on Movie making and literacy skills. Some great pedagogy happening with this group of students. I really like Kynan's philosophy of letting the students learn rather than intervening with teacher direction. Final cut express is a rather complicated piece of software but it looks like these kids have eaten it for breakfast

Are you a 21st Century Teacher? 1. You require your students to use a variety of sources for their research projects…and they cite blogs, podcasts, and interviews they've conducted via Skype. 2. Your students work on collaborative projects…with students in Australia. (Substitute: other parts of the world for us Austns) This is a thought provoking list that has a link at the end to another article - becoming a 21st C teacher in 2 hours!

"A collection of popular Android apps to help students with their writing. Using these apps students will be able to: access a wide variety of creative writing prompts, generate plots and outlines for writing projects, focus more on the writing task under hand using distraction-free editors and many more."

"Bebras is an international student challenge whose goal is to promote computational thinking for teachers and students (ages 8-17 / school years 3-12). Bebras is aligned with and supports information and communication technology curricula across Australia. Bebras Australia is run by NICTA under the Digital Careers program, funded by the Australian Government. It's a great way to get students interested and participating in information and communication technology (ICT) which could lead to an interest in pursuing a career in the exciting ICT industry!"

BlackBeltHelp OneStop Support will help higher education institutions integrate multiple software and services like ERP, SIS, LMS, Admission & Enrollment, Financial Aid, Switchboard & Facilities, Student Retention into a single, easy-to-navigate, analytics-powered dashboard. This integration into an AI-powered platform will streamline student services and help user institutions address challenges like growing service demands, student runaround, increased service wait-times. Additionally, it will also allow the end-users to leverage self-service technology to resolve support issues, bringing down the support costs and staff's workload. Consider BlackBeltHelp an extension of your staff and support services.

Formative wants to encourage students to learn from feedback and corrections. teachers can watch in real time as students answer questions and can go in to give assistance.This allows students to feel that they are receiving one-to-one attention. It also offers way for teachers to provide personalized comments outside the classroom. The tool with Maths and Science focused subjects..

Studying in a university both has its up and downs. You might be on your way to getting a diploma but the road from high-school graduate to getting your degree is a tough one. Students have told horror stories of being so broke they've resorted to an everyday diet of instant ramen. While admittedly, instant ramen sounds good, here are a few ways for you to earn extra cash on the side so you can afford other things. Continue reading here http://www.make-lots-of-money.com/make-money-university-student/

"The idea of students sitting in front of PCs learning how to use Word is as dead as the proverbial dead parrot. It is already an antiquated model of learning - like chalk or fountain pens with ink-wells; it has a whiff of the twentieth century about it, rather than preparing our students for the future. Whilst the DfE dithers about what they should do with technology (Mr Gove clearly wants to reboot the chalk and talk bygone age), schools are left with a rapidly changing world, where budgets are at a premium and ICT often stretches what budgets now allow. All the while, students are learning on their iPads, Android tablets and smart phones, writing more in texts and tweets daily than in their collective writing experience during the school week. We aren't harnessing this expertise, never mind guiding it to a place of higher learning!"

"It started out with a standardized writing prompt and was never intended to move outside of the small testing window. However, when students finished writing a persuasive text on whether students should  be allowed to have cell phones and MP3 players (a student aptly pointed out that banning MP3 players would still allow him to have an iPod, because they don't use the MP3 format), they wanted to create their own BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policies."

Presefy is a new service that you can use to share your presentations to your students' mobile devices. Through Presefy you can control your slides from your computer or from the browser in your iPad, iPhone, Android phone, or any other mobile device that has a web browser.  When you advance the slides in your presentation the slides also advance on your students' mobile devices. Your students can take notes as they follow along with your slides.

"Today's education system is evolving to take full advantage of the potential of mobile technology devices to inspire learning and create independent, critical thinkers. However, with tight budgets, many schools are hoping to bring technology into the classroom without the costly burden of purchasing a device for each student. One potential solution that is being explored is BYOD, or Bring Your Own Device. This allows students to bring their personal laptops, tablets, and smartphones from home and use them for educational applications in the classroom. At a time when budgets are shrinking, school districts are considering BYOD programs to integrate cost-effective technology into their educational programs. It's a promising idea, especially for schools that lack sufficient technology budgets. BYOD takes advantage of the technology that students already own and are familiar with. However, BYOD programs have been met with some criticism from staff and administrators who believe the challenges outweigh the perceived benefits. Continue reading..."

A safe way for teachers to text message students and stay in touch with parents. Free.

"Generation YES is a non-profit 501 (c)(3) with a mission to empower students and teachers to use technology to improve education in their own school. Our school-friendly online tools and innovative project-based curriculum build a learning community where students work alongside their teachers as technology leaders, collaborators and mentors. 15 years of research experience and proven scientific results show that when schools trust and collaborate with their students to integrate technology, academic success follows."

Instreamia will offer a 12 week 3-credit course for students with no background in Spanish to communicate through listening, speaking, reading, and writing. This open course will create and provide resources reusable under creative commons standards. Registration for the course is available immediately, and the course will begin January 21 and run through April 8. Students will be expected to dedicate 6 hours per week, for a total of 72 hours. Although the course cannot provide college credit from an accredited university, capable students will learn the material of a first-year college class, and will receive a letter grade.

"One of the greatest positives of the iPad as a learning tool in education are the many different apps that allow students to create amazing pieces of work which demonstrate their learning. Not only that, but the productivity tools that go with their day to day activities are vast. Whittling down recently our core apps for students, you'll see there are tools for taking notes, creating professional documents, presentations, making books, creating screencasts, the whole lot. One of the negatives with the iPad though has been the problems associated with workflow. How do you get the work off? How do you, as a teacher, receive work from the students? How are you going to check their progress? How are you going to assess their work? Some recent developments have really helped to alleviate many of these concerns."