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Last month, Apple announced iBooks2 with the main focus being on electronic textbooks for education. I wrote my initial thoughts, concerns, and observations then and am still a skeptic due to costs and access to devices. iPads are expensive ($500) and then add in the costs of the iBooks ($14.99) for each student. Most schools are in the red and have no money for devices. Instead, I like device and OS agnostic, free apps and e-textbooks, along with free web resources. There are a bunch of links below for more on that.

State of Washington.

But as Damian Bebell, one of the project's researchers argues, we can't just act as though the devices "arrive on parachutes" into a classroom and suddenly and magically students perform better. "It's really about pedagogy and teaching," says Bebell. The iPads are "just a tool."

""It struck me then that if we can have a wiki approach of those who have direct experience of the frontline, if we can do it in something as critical as the role of the military, then there is a huge potential to do it in education and other areas as well.""

This page is where you can find resources related to my presentations about creating effective blogs and websites to complement instruction.

"Google+ is finally open to teenagers, according to post today by VP of Product Bradley Horowitz. When G+ launched last year, it was only open to those 18 and older, and even when the social network expanded to Google Apps for Education users, it maintained the age restriction. With today's announcement, that restriction is no longer in place "

Virtual professional development for 21st Century educators, Online PD, Web 2.0 tools, free 21st Century curriculum

"We tend to focus a lot on the institution, the instructors, the principal, the community and the mission that makes SLA -- after all, I think everyone is eager to identify "what works" in education. But I'm always struck by how incredibly awesome the students at SLA are."

"While so often in this space you read about the successful and exciting things that are happening in my classroom, there are many things that are disastrous. Trust me, there are days when I'm glad that another teacher isn't present to witness the chaos. So often we don't talk about these things. We need to."

"The iPad Institute is organized in five clusters that correspond to the five days of direct instruction and hands-on practice aimed at accomplishing the objectives outlined below. To help accomplish all of this within the span of five days, participants will use iBooks to to work through the iPad Primer that includes video tutorials and links to the apps taught in the Institute. To download the Primer your iPad needs to have your Apple ID."

"this information gives us a vision of "students that are enabled, engaged, and empowered." This is true, she added, for students at all grade levels, from elementary through high school."

"The Digital Textbook Playbook is a guide to help K-12 educators and administrators begin building rich digital learning experiences for students in districts across the country. The playbook offers information about determining broadband infrastructure for schools and classrooms, leveraging home and community broadband to extend the digital learning environment, and understanding necessary device considerations. It also provides lessons learned from school districts that have engaged in successful transitions to digital learning."

Announcing, the Flat Classroom K-2 'Building Bridges to Tomorrow' Project! Co-founders of Flat Classroom, Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis, are excited to be able to offer this global collaborative project to classrooms around the world. This project will run as a pilot for the coming semester, February-April 2012 and be open to Prep/Kindergarten, Grade 1, and Grade 2 classrooms (4-7 year old students).

To acquire and practice literacy skills today, students and educators in Oklahoma City Public Schools require access to Evernote, Google Docs, Gmail, Edmodo, Posterous, Celebrate Oklahoma Voices, and other educationally appropriate, interactive websites. All these websites are currently (as of February 9, 2012) blocked by OKCPS for student access. OKCPS must stop its "draconian" and unjustified Internet content filtering policies and adopt BALANCED policies.

Somewhere along the line we decided that failure was a bad thing - something to be avoided at all costs, as if that's possible.  Even though we tell our kids that Edison failed hundreds of times before he invented the light bulb, we keep perpetuating  school cultures that abhor failure. Our students likely know most of what we're saying is lip-service.

You just have to tap your iPad and there you are, exploring the realms of science in a fun, exciting, colorful and in some cases, realistically illustrated method. That's what these iPad apps for science are all about. Here you will find science apps for elementary graders, high school students, college students, etc. for free, and some for only a dollar or two. Either way, these apps are all great in their own topic of interest.

Conrad's class tweeting sessions, which usually come at the end of the day for about 20 minutes, keep communication open with parents and help the kids learn typing, spelling and reading, Conrad said. Getting to push the "tweet" button is also an exciting privilege.