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"Search giant Google has revealed its Google Apps software as a service platform has been deployed to some 330,000 students, teachers and administrative staff at Catholic schools across Australia, in one of the largest local known rollouts of the platform so far."

"Google Docs is a fantastic tool for professional and student collaboration. After using Google Docs for an extended period of time, it becomes evident to most Google Docs users that your inbox can become a cluttered, hectic and confusing mess. Magnify that confusion X 100 when you start to have students share their documents with you for evaluation and grading and you can have a colossal mess on your hands. Based on my experience using Google Docs for the past two years, I have come up with a strategy that I think may help anyone who plans on using Google Docs with students next year. "

While there will never be a replacement for a paper book with dog-eared pages, hand written notes in the margins, a broken spine and a proudly worn cover with a hint of dirt and stains, there is an exciting new option to transform the practice of reading to make it more social and collaborative.  Subtext is an intriguing iPad application that allows users to read books collaboratively.  While reading, participants can insert text, emotions, questions, links and thoughts into the margins of the book.  When other readers jump into the text they can see the notations and reply to the existing thoughts in a discussion thread that is neatly tucked away into the margins of the text.

THE BURRITOBOT IS A 3-D PRINTER THAT LETS USERS FABRICATE A DELICIOUS BEAN BURRITO VIA AN IPHONE INTERFACE MECHANISM. WHILE THE PRINTER MIGHT BE HUMOROUS, THE PROOF OF CONCEPT IS VERY, VERY REAL.

"IconArchive is a professional tag based icon search engine with more than 330,000 icons for web developers, end users and graphic artists. Also it is an inspiration source for new design ideas and a place to enjoy beautiful icons. You can collect, organize & share your favorite icons here with ease. If you want to customize your desktop, you can download icons for all operating systems, Win, Mac & Linux. Website or Software developers with demand for custom icon design could search for professional icon artists here. This may result in freelance jobs and/or design help for projects of any size. On our icon artists page you can select artists offering custom icon design."

Unhangout is an open source platform for running large scale online un-conferences. We use Google Hangouts to create as many small sessions as needed, and help users find others with shared interests. Think of it as a classroom with an infinite number of breakout sessions. Each event has a landing page, which we call the lobby. When participants arrive, they can see who else is there and chat with each other. The hosts can do a video welcome and introduction that gets streamed into the lobby. Participants then break out into smaller sessions (up to 10 people per session) for in-depth conversations, peer-to-peer learning, and collaboration on projects. UnHangouts are community-based learning instead of top-down information transfer.

"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

"It's the iPad's versatility, portability, camera, app selection and user-friendliness that keeps it ahead of the others for education but it's the approach taken by the teacher to learning within the classroom that realises these benefits, not the iPad alone. Worry first about what you are asking of your students and how much they are reliant on the teacher."

"Imagine this: you're surfing the web while out at lunch. You decide to buy concert tickets, so to save having to put your sandwich down you ask a passer-by to log in to the ticketing website for you. As unrealistic as this scenario sounds, users regularly do that when they scan, click and navigate to potentially untrusted internet resources with only a machine-readable matrix - a QR code - to lead the way."

"If you go to the Getty Images website, you'll see millions of images, all watermarked. There are more than a hundred years of photography here, from FDR on the campaign trail to last Sunday's Oscars, all stamped with the same transparent square placard reminding you that you don't own the rights. If you want Getty to take off the watermark, you'll have to pay for it. Starting now, that's going to change. Getty Images is dropping the watermark for the bulk of its collection, in exchange for an open-embed program that will let users drop in any image they want, as long as the service gets to append a footer at the bottom of the picture with a credit and link to the licensing page. "

"Last November, a young man was ordered by a NSW court to pay A$105,000 in damages for defaming a teacher at his former school on Twitter. The decision, which only came to light earlier this week, should serve as a reminder to all users of the legal risks involved in using social media."

"There are days I just hate technology. Just when I think I'm ahead of my kids, up pops another ridiculously stupid app like Yik Yak. The latest app to make news, Yik Yak allows users to comment anonymously-because you know, who needs to take responsibility for their words, right? I've read a couple of blogs about it, too-great takes from Portrait of an Adoption,  Baby Sideburns and Tween Us. And then there's the schools, at least locally, trying to get the app disabled. Good luck with that. Because here's the thing. The app developers only care about one thing-and it's not your kid."

ToS;DR is still very new (started in mid-2012) so the number of sites that have report cards are limited, but it is an excellent example of the positive change that can occur through global connectivity and collaboration, and the project is actively growing. This is a grassroots project, created by citizens and volunteers who take their responsibilities very seriously; they engage in a peer-reviewed process of rating and analysing to create each rating, and they are committed to Creative Commons and Free Software licensing. While this site does not take the place of legal advice, it does help users make some sense of the pages and pages of fine print before we click, and ultimately that offers us the chance to make better online choices.

This Symbaloo created by user lcobbs detailing 50 great classroom tools that are all easy to implement into just about any classroom. From Animoto to Prezi to Dropbox to Stixy (wait what?), there's a lot to check out. Don't know all 50 tools? I didn't! Click on each icon to get an idea about each tool and learn more.

"Edmodo recently released a new look for their website. Many times when a website changes. there's a ton of confusion about old features, new feature, and where everything is now located. Not with Edmodo! The simple and clear design makes it easy to navigate between all of the tools. So there shouldn't be too much confusion for existing users, and teachers who want to learn how to use Edmodo for the first time are met with a sleek and simple interface."

"To improve the experience for the entire Google Apps ecosystem - that's our goal. Whether you're a Google Apps administrator, end-user, or even reselling Google Apps, BetterCloud products and solutions can help you do your job. We believe Google Apps is set to drive the next phase of innovation in the enterprise, and BetterCloud products will help turn that vision into a reality."

Epubbud is another way students can have their work published. It allows you to convert any existing document into an e-book or create the book on the site itself. It converts the book to the epub format which is compatible with various readers and tablets. It is a fairly easy and efficient way to generate an epub format book even if the user interface is not as refined as some of the other publishing tools.

Since the beginning Google Forms has been continuously updated with one of the latest enabling users to embed pictures and images into forms. On this site Eric Curts has made available some tutorials that cover a wide range of tips and tricks on anything you need to know about Google Forms

"Makers and alpha geeks have found meaningful applications for the internet of things but there is still a big gap between them and the average user who doesn't want to hack. How do we design for everyone?"

"It seems like every other month, Evernote gets additional upgrades. A few are quietly released, while others are highly anticipated by heavy Evernote users. Since I wrote my last article about Evernote's new design and file storage upgrades, the popular notebook has gotten important new features, including Reminders, a highlighter and tighter security for subscribers, among others."