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In reading tests at school, girls tend to be ahead of boys, in all age groups and in all countries. But in young adults, there is suddenly no longer any difference between men's and women's reading skills. Why is that? Could the answer be in the way the tests are designed?

"We can all get a little puzzled with time. Sometimes we have no idea where it goes, whereas there are other times when it goes by so fast. Yet one this is for sure…it is going at the same pace, no matter what, and the relationship between time and the cosmos is complex. Understanding the relationship, Cosmic Watch is a unique iPad app that provides an advanced, 3D astronomical time device for the digital age."

"We are looking at the impact of the child-parent relationship. If parents have an open relationship with their children and are able to discuss their online activities with them we find incidents of cyber-aggression are reduced and children are less likely to engage in cyberbullying or be the recipient of it,"

An interesting music maker. Adjust the strings and change the notes and choose between three instrument sounds. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Music%2C+Sound+%26+Podcasts

Grammar girl has so many great ways to remember things in grammar. I've missed the words "effect" and "affect"  in the past and am working on improving my own grammar. It is one of those things i've been taught all of this and when I was valedictorian I knew it but somewhere in there between there and here I've forgotten some of it. I go to grammar girl to give me ways to remember it. OK affect - verb; effect - noun.  Grammar teachers will enjoy her.

A java based maths number grid with lots of options. Hide numbers with Monty the snake and change between a hundred square and multiplication square. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Maths

A great spelling resource from the Oxford English Dictionary. Listen to words and try to spell them at three levels of difficulty. Choose between British and US spelling. Play full screen at http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/media/spelling-bee-2011/SpellingContest.swf http://j.mp/HBnIw6 http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/English

This site allows you to save sentences and lists of activities and projects to easily customise your school reports. Build your own comment back to avoid careless errors and save it until next year. Easily change between he/she him/her and more by using hashtags. It not a comment bank, it's just a smarter way to use your own words in an organised way. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Planning+%26+Assessment

It is important to read things even if you know from the title that you'll disagree. This article is sure to spark controversy and be embraced by those who want to keep a traditional classroom in rows where kids listen to lecture. While I'm not in an ivory tower, my experience in the power of the face to face classroom has convinced me that when I teach and integrate all different senses that students learn better. I've also seen (and quoted in Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds in the Choice chapter that discusses differentiation) that dual encoding (listening to words while reading them) improves the ability to learn to read. (I'll have to look in the book for the sources of research.) I do think, however, there are some good points here, although I firmly believe their conclusion that students are going to learn no matter how they relate to content -- is inaccurate. The lines are being drawn between those who want to change and use technology and those who want the status quo. Nonetheless, if you lose your ability to read things you do not agree with, and engage in thoughtful conversation, then you miss the point of being well educated. Look forward to hearing your thoughts on this study.

Play-on: the boundaries between the real and virtual world have gone for kids, it's all just one big world of play.  Now kids arrange play dates in the playground, swapping their penguin names to 'Play-on' after school in Club Penguin.  The new friends functionality will allow kids to find their friends faster, teleporting them to their friends within Club Penguin, regardless of where they are playing from or what server they're on Supportmobbing: Kidanthropy:  Kidsourcing:  Digilinguists:

Shelfster is in beta and is a tool for writers to collect resources. It is interesting because of how it moves between desktop, mobile, and web. Research is evolving and students should be empowered with social bookmarking and research aggregation tools like this one.

I think this has a pretty good explanation between all the ebook readers. Personally, I'd go with Amazon all the way just because of the pricing and selection.

Ah, epaper. Digital books. They started as barely a blip but now have become the battleground for the next all out war between tech giants. "The app update -- which Apple is calling iBooks 2 and is already released to the iOS App Store -- will allow for textbooks to be sold through the popular app, which in the past sold novels, nonfiction and poetry, but not textbooks. All textbooks sold through the free app, which is available only to Apple's i-devices, will be priced at $14.99 or less -- a stark contrast to the high-priced paper books that fill college bookstores. But the main allure might not be the price as much as the interactive features iBooks textbooks can offer. Apple, which announced the iBooks update at a press event in New York at the Guggenheim Museum, said the iBooks textbook exceeds paper texts in terms of engagement, calling it a durable, quickly searchable book that offers easy highlighting and note-taking  as well as interactive photo galleries, videos, and 3-D models and diagrams.

Aims Aims One of the OERtest project aims is to provide support for future OER-related initiatives by European HEIs. One way to do it so is by the establishment of a European network to promote and follow the development of OER and Open Educational Practices within the EHEA. The project partnership will act as a vivid example of a consortium of European universities that offer credit certification under a self-developed framework of learning based on study using OERs, which is shared among several universities and proves to be feasible. Formalised through a Memorandum of Understanding, the OER Europe Network is intended to initially consist of an agreement between the project partners to continue the sustainability objectives of the project beyond its lifetime. As a framework agreement for cooperation on the topic, the agreement will also however admit for other institutions to join, and for the network to take on its own life.

This is a MUST TRY site. It's not often that I'm amazed be an educational resource, but I am with this one. Pora Ora is a stunning educational virtual world for Primary school aged students. Play truely fun educational games which practise skills in English, maths and many other subjects. The graphics and useably is superb. Online safety is at the heart of this site. The parential admin account can set the student's account to free chat with everyone to completely locked down where they have the world to themselves and everything in between. The site has a language filter and users can report any incidents of trouble. Also, the first task requires the user to complete an online safety task. The site is free with a few premium features coming out later. You have got to try this one! http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/ICT+%26+Web+Tools

If you are a parent or homeschooler, you'll have time to use this powerpoint between now and New Year's. This is a lesson about how to design a poster for firework safety.

This helpful page from the British Council explains the differences between the UK and US educational systems. They have had a national curriculum since 1992.

No undoing for you! Face scanning uses the measurements between your eyes and a few other dimensions to determine if a person is old enough to buy something out of the machine. But the fact that it is put on a jello pudding machine is pretty funny to me. Guess junior will need an older sibling tonget that jello for him. Humor aside, there could be use for this in areas served by kids and adults although kids do get around obstacles when they want to.

Wow! A simply stunning, fast loading, space 3D simulation of the solar system. Fly between the plants and look at them close up. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Science