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"Jean-Baptiste Michel looks at how we can use large volumes of data to better understand our world."

One of the perplexing things that teachers and educators encounter when trying to understand educational technology and leverage it to their classrooms is the abundance of those baffling techy terms. Blended Learning is different from Differentiated Learning, Educational Technology might not be necessarily Instructional Technology, a Virtual Classroom is different from an Electronic Classroom or Flipped Classroom; There is also asynchronous, synchronous, and personalized learning, these and many more are but some examples of the growing terminology in this field.

SciStarter will bring together the millions of citizen scientists in the world; the thousands of potential projects offered by researchers, organizations, and companies; and the resources, products, and services that enable citizens to pursue and enjoy these activities. We aim to:  Enable and encourage people to learn about, participate in, and contribute to science through both informal recreational activities and formal research efforts. Inspire greater appreciation and promote a better understanding of science and technology among the general public. Create a shared space where scientists can talk with citizens interested in working on or learning about their research projects. Satisfy the popular urge to tinker, build, and explore by making it simple and fun for people-singles, parents, grandparents, kids-to jump in and get their hands dirty with science.

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.

"This is the first post of a research inquiry that questions the ways in which we have understood the Youth-Technology-Change relationship in the contemporary digital world, especially through the identity of 'Digital Native'. Drawing from three years of research and current engagements in the field, the post begins a critique of how we need to look at the outliers, the people on the fringes in order to unravel the otherwise celebratory nature of discourse about how the digital is changing the world. In this first post, I chart the trajectories of our research at the Centre for Internet and Society (Bangalore, India) and Hivos (The Hague, The Netherlands) to see how alternative models of understanding these relationships can be built."

"What excited me about the Digital Technologies curriculum in particular is the way that it has embraced the Digital Technologies as a way of thinking and a tool for creativity. The problem I've always had with the teaching of ICT in schools is that it has largely been seen as a tool that should be integrated to assist the teaching of other subjects - that's fine, but that's captured in the ICT General Capability in the Australian Curriculum and is very different to the study of ICT as a discipline, sometimes branded as Computer Science, Informatics, Computing or similar. Given the ubiquitous nature of ICT in our world today, it has always struck me as odd that we've relegated the understanding of ICT to being all about its use, rather than how it manages to achieve the "magic" that many people mistake it to be."

"As promised, I put a free PDF copy of "It's Complicated" on my website the day the book officially launched. But as some folks noticed, I didn't publicize this when I did so. For those who are curious as to why, I want to explain. And I want you to understand the various issues at play for me as an author and a youth advocate."

"Have you ever wondered how Google works? Sure, it has a complex algorithm that looks at hundreds of variables, but in simple terms…do you know how Google works? To help you get a better understanding of Google's algorithm as well as to show you how some of Google's features work, I've created an animated infographic to explain the whole process. "

"While most web-sites provide downloads of current versions, OldApps.com caters to a different market of interest by providing older versions of the same useful programs. Often newer versions are more complicated to use and we understand that it is hard to find older, more user-friendly versions of popular software. Many software providers do not include older versions of their software on their sites, therefore, OldApps.com has found its market niche and provides a vital intermediary function for our users' software needs."

"There are now two main cultures in computing: Most computer users treat software as a tool for getting tasks done, while programmers hold conversations with their software. One big challenge when teaching programming, no matter in what language, is getting students used to a conversation-oriented programmer culture, which is very different than a tool-oriented user culture" An interesting post, although I was actually left wondering why users should worry about programming. I understand that there are differences, but other than 'big data', Philip does not really provide detailed reasoning to support the argument.

"David White of the University of Oxford explains how the Visitors and Residents model provides a framework to understand individuals' engagement with the Web based on motivation and context. He argues that the metaphors of 'place' and 'tool' best represent the use of technology in contemporary society and allow us to better adapt to the challenges of new forms of academic practice. "

"If you've scratched your head over suggestions to manage your "digital footprint," you aren't the only one. A surprisingly large percentage of people have never even heard the phrase, let alone thought about how to manage theirs responsibly. Among students, the percentage is probably higher. We'll talk about ways you can help students understand and manage their digital footprints before they get themselves in trouble."

"Advocates of the learning style theory argue that instructors can achieve much better results when they take their student's learning style under consideration and create a course that best fits this exact style. The adversaries of the learning style theory say that this concept is misunderstood and not scientifically proven, and they argue that learning styles do make instructors understand what motivates and cerebrally stimulates their students, but they can't guarantee a successful outcome nor predict it. So where is the truth in that and where lies the Learning Styles myth?  "

"Middle to late in term 2 of this year we decided to survey a large cohort of our Middle Years students (Yrs. 6, 7, and 8), all of whom are involved in our 1:1 iPad Program. Over the past two years we have decided to survey our students about their iPad, or more so Mobile Technology use to assist us in gaining a slightly better understanding of their feelings and perceptions relating to the use of their devices to support their learning. I have included aspects of the completed data below. Our next step is to unpack this a little further with both teachers within their teams as well as the students themselves."

"The role of technology in learning isn't entirely clear-or rather, is subjective. While it clearly is able to provide access to peers, audiences, resources, and data, it also can be awkward, problematic, distracting, performing more strongly as a barrier to understand than anything else. Why this happens also isn't clear, but there are some common patterns and missteps to look for while designing or evaluating a learning process."

"I want the people who will help shape our society in the future to understand the technology that will help shape out society in the future. If this is going to happen, then we need to reverse the trend that is seeing digital illiteracy exponentially increase. We need to act together, as parents, as teachers, as policy makers. Lets build a generation of hackers. Who's with me?"

"This would not be the first time. For example, when Sir Francis Bacon said that knowledge of the world should be grounded in carefully verified facts about the world, he wasn't just giving us a new method to achieve old-fashioned knowledge. He was redefining knowledge as theories that are grounded in facts. The Age of the Net is bringing about a redefinition at the same scale. Scientific knowledge is taking on properties of its new medium, becoming like the network in which it lives."

"You are teaching a class and want to collect feedback at the beginning of the class to see whether everyone is on the same page. You can do tests, collect them and grade them, or you can use quizsocket. You get instanteneous feedback about problems. As a teacher you learn what was difficult to understand in the last class and can immediately react"

Simple alternative to response systems

"The Copyright and Schools website is an information resource to help schools navigate copyright licensing and understand how copyright material can be used legally within a school - providing accessible, relevant and up to date information to support the curricular and extracurricular use of copyright content. "

Another interesting discussion in regards to why students should learn to code. A good comparison with learning a spoken language and some of the benefits, such as problem solving and understanding the world around us. Ends with the suggestion that, like playing a sport, coding is good for you.