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It is finally here. Here are the details on our Flat Classroom global book club. (click the link for more) Every week for 10 weeks we will meet at an alternating time - 12 hours apart. (For the East Coast USA it is Sundays at 6 pm Eastern or Monday mornings at 6 am eastern)  Visit our Book club calendar to convert these times to your Time Zone. Subscribe to this calendar via Google calendar to keep up with events.This is Sunday evenings at 22:00GMT alternating with Monday mornings at 10:00GMT in our Blackboard Collaborate room https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?sid=2007066&password=M.065891D192F8072208BF5756999CE0 .   The book club is free and everyone is welcome. #flatclass Book Club Meeting Times Week and Date Time Topic of Conversation Week 1: Sunday March 11 22:00 GMT (6 pm EDT) Chapter 1 - Flattening Classrooms through Global Collaboration (p 1-17) Chapter 2 - Impact on Learning: Research in the Global Collaborative Classroom (p18-30) Week 2: Monday, March 19 10:00 GMT (6 am EDT) Chapter 3 - Step 1: Connection (p 31-61) Week 3: Sunday, March 25 22:00 GMT (6 pm EDT) Chapter 4 - Step 2: Communication (p 62-96) Week 4: Monday, April 2 10:00 GMT (6 am EDT) Chapter 5 - Step 3: Citizenship (p 97-125) Take a break. Week 5: Sunday, April 15 22:00 GMT (6 pm EDT) Chapter 6 - Step 4: Contribution and Collaboration (p 126-157) Week 6: Monday, April 23 10:00 GMT (6 am EDT) Chapter 7 - Step 5: Choice (p 158-196) Week 7: Sunday, April 29 22:00 GMT (6 pm EDT) Chapter 8 - Step 6: Creation (p197-214) Week 8: Monday, May 7 10:00 GMT (6 am EDT) Chapter 9 - Step 7: Celebration (p 215-234) Week 9: Sunday, May 13 22:00 GMT (6 pm EDT) Chapter 10 - Designing and Managing a Global Collaborative Project (p 235-267) Week 10: Monday, May 21 10:00 GMT (6 am EDT) Chapter 11 - Challenge-Based Professional Development (p 268-293) Chapter 12: Rock the World (p 293 - 304)  We're also inviting the educators featured in each chapter to be with us for the conversations about "th

Ceri is from the UK and is going to live demo a program he's written for Kinect (that he plans to give away for free) that emulates the program Soundbeam. This program lets you move parts of your body and plays music and is going to be an incredible thing to use for special ed students with the Kinect. This is his twitter handle. Follow him to Keep up with what he's doing.

"Here are insights from the team of educational innovators at one of the most transformational schools I have visited: SCIL, the Sydney Centre for Innovation in Learning at NBCS, the Northern Beaches Christian School." (via Pekka Ihanainen)

The ubermix is an all-free, specially built, Linux-based operating system designed from the ground up with the needs of education in mind. Built by educators with an eye towards student and teacher empowerment, ubermix takes all the complexity out of student devices by making them as reliable and easy-to-use as a cell phone, without sacrificing the power and capabilities of a full operating system. With a turn-key, 5 minute installation, 20 second quick recovery mechanism, and more than 60 free applications pre-installed, ubermix turns whatever hardware you have into a powerful device for learning. via James T. Sanders

Great article on US news about initiatives in the US that have started but of special interest is the request that students and educators tweet. The biggest issues I've had with the town hall meetings is that most of them are in the middle of the day when everyone is teaching. On Thursday at 3 pm there is a chat about rural education. It is nice that they're having these meetings but if they REALLY want teachers to participate it will be when teachers are able to focus on the conversation. You can't have teachers teaching and Tweeting. It doesn't work. If you see me tweet during the day, most of the tweets are scheduled or I'm on break or lunch break. "February has been a busy month for K-12 education. On February 1, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan kicked it off by announcing that all U.S. schools should transition to digital textbooks within the next five years. On the 9th, President Obama waived 10 states from No Child Left Behind. And last week, the president proposed a 2013 budget that includes a $1.7 funding increase for education." Although these federal policy decisions may not seem directly connected to day-to-day classroom activities, the Department of Education is using Twitter to encourage teachers, administrators, parents, and students to play a more active role.

Handwriting and fine motor activities. A nice PDF document that you can find some things if you teach handwriting. Description: This resource provides a range of activities to develop fine motor skills, designed with learners with severe learning difficulties in mind. It is by no means exhaustive, but covers a range of activities to develop discrimination of left and right, hand-eye coordination, crossing the mid-line,

Help develop language skills for students who are having difficulty with this Android and Apple Device App with a cartoon cat that copies every sound you make and interacts in other ways. The basic free version has lots of functionality, but comes with banner ads. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Special+Educational+Needs

A new movie is coming out on OCtober 4 that is a documentary seeking to counter popular misconceptions about Dyslexia. With Dyslexic celebrities like Billy Bob Thornton, Richard Branson and others Barbara Corcoran, and Sir Richard Branson along with Dyslexic director Harvey Hubbel. For special ed teachers and parents, you'll want to keep up with this and help debunk common myths. As a Mom of a dyslexic myself, I want to help people realize that many with this become very successful.

February 11, the Special Interest Group for Mobile Learning #sigml will be hosting tweetchats during the day about a variety of topics. Sylvia Martinez and I will be talking about the maker movement at 5 pm that day. Sylvia is coauthor of the amazing book "Invent2Learn" -- a must read for those interested in the maker movement. There are many others including Scott Merrick, Susan Wells and more who are sharing that day.

This app converts study notes to speech. This might be an app that some of you are interested in trying out for your special needs students. "OutlinesOutloud takes the sting out of studying by converting your study outlines to spoken audio. Super-flexible playback controls let you vary speech rate; jump forward and backward with ease, skip rows or whole sections, loop-and more!"

This is a useful choosing board Apple app to help with communication. Make your boards using the preloaded images or take photos to make your own. Record a word or phrase which is played as each button is pushed. Download the app at https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/soundingboard/id390532167. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Special+Educational+Needs

An Apple app which lets you quickly scan and mark paper-based quizzes using the special mark sheet and your mobile device. The children simply make a mark on their answer sheet to show their answer. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Planning+%26+Assessment

Teachers sharing ideas, resources and activities for teaching ICT

I've been asked to talk about how Tablets Can make you a more effective teacher on May 7 - it is free so you can register. They have other sessions (one with Jon Bergman in June on Blended Learning) and a Special needs session April 9 - if you're into Windows 8 (like me) you can hit the best Windows 8 apps on Feb 11. As with anything - it is how you use the tablet or device that makes you better.

"ewordify.com is powerful, free, online reading comprehension and vocabulary development software. It helps people understand difficult English faster, helps them learn words in new ways, and helps teachers create high-interest learning materials from any English text passage. See the yellow box at the top of the page? Just paste in a difficult English sentence, paragraph, or more, or enter a web page URL and click the button. You'll instantly see an easier version, for fast understanding now. No dictionary needed! Plus, the easier version is specially highlighted to help build vocabulary."

Infographic Summary, Archive and Storify from a ukedchat discussion focusing on design skills

Read the open access magazine online. This month's issue has a 'Learning For All' theme, with articles about special education, inclusion, behaviour management, feedback techniques, and EdTech for your lessons.

Languages Special