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As some of you experience Microsoft's super cool Kinect system for the first time, you'll be thrilled to know this tool is being used in school as well. Here, my go to Microsoft blogger And dear friend Alfred Thompson gives an overview of Kinect in education.

A good collection of images of the solar system and others space objects. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Science

This survey shows that iPad with the $199 price tag is a 'serious" contender for the ipad. I had someone ask me about Kindle fire vs. iPad. Definitely people are comparing it. Personally, I think it is going to take an OS update the droid system because every time I've used a droid anything the touch hasn't been responsive, but that update is coming.

"Physics Astrophysics (astro-ph new, recent, find) includes: Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics; Earth and Planetary Astrophysics; Galaxy Astrophysics; High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena; Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics; Solar and Stellar Astrophysics Condensed Matter (cond-mat new, recent, find) includes: Disordered Systems and Neural Networks; Materials Science; Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics; Other Condensed Matter; Quantum Gases; Soft Condensed Matter; Statistical Mechanics; Strongly Correlated Electrons; Superconductivity General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc new, recent, find) High Energy Physics - Experiment (hep-ex new, recent, find) High Energy Physics - Lattice (hep-lat new, recent, find) High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph new, recent, find) High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th new, recent, find) Mathematical Physics (math-ph new, recent, find) Nuclear Experiment (nucl-ex new, recent, find) Nuclear Theory (nucl-th new, recent, find) Physics (physics new, recent, find) includes: Accelerator Physics; Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics; Atomic Physics; Atomic and Molecular Clusters; Biological Physics; Chemical Physics; Classical Physics; Computational Physics; Data Analysis, Statistics and Probability; Fluid Dynamics; General Physics; Geophysics; History and Philosophy of Physics; Instrumentation and Detectors; Medical Physics; Optics; Physics Education; Physics and Society; Plasma Physics; Popular Physics; Space Physics Quantum Physics (quant-ph new, recent, find)"

Engage the class using any device

Gamification is one response. By embedding diverse achievements into activities and assessments, learning progress can be refracted infinitely. These systems would be able to more flexibly respond to unique learner pathways and abilities, and would further serve as encouragement mechanics -- instead of one carrot stick, there are hundreds. And not just carrots, but every fruit and vegetable imaginable.

Windows 9 is coming in 2015. Many think Windows 8 was a trainwreck. I think one thing all companies should realize is that as the market matures, the older people who have been using Windows (or any other program for a long period of time) not only want to know HOW to do things the new way but WHY they should. I know many who would be happy to pay for and keep a Windows XP interface for a long time. I understand why the surface style was needed for surface devices but many would be happy with an older system using a traditional windows view.

Here's a sample presentation from eMaze. If you look at it, you'll see elements of Prezi and Haiku deck. These simple presentation makers add variety. I prefer to have multiple types of presentation programs to keep our work fresh and interesting.

You can now plan a Mystery Skype by registering on Skype. They've got information on how to do it and a system to help you pair with classes your age. I'm all in this!

If you're not already using Dropbox - you should. They had a developer conference and will likely end up everywhere in every app. Some very cool things coming. Just like Evernote - who has a powerful "trunk" features where developer work is showcased - Dropbox is going to find that opening up to development opens a whole new marketplace and ingenuity beyond what they have in house.  Some info from the wired article.  "But after all that single-mindedness, Houston and Ferdowsi now want to let their baby sing. Today, at Dropbox's first-ever developers conference, the company is officially launching a new set of coding tools designed to push Dropbox into every corner of your digital life. Not content to stay sequestered inside the box, the company's co-founders are unveiling ways for developers to meld their service with every app on every device you own. For the first five or so years of its existence, Dropbox was synonymous with its "magic folder." Save your files in the Dropbox folder on your computer, and they "magically" reappear in your Dropbox apps on your phone and tablet and in your Dropbox account on the web. Now, if developers take to the company's new tools, the service will escape the confines of this folder, fusing with third-party apps running on practically every computer and smartphone operating system. Houston wants Dropbox to become the "spiritual successor to the hard drive." He says the hard drive needs to be replaced because so many of us are doing so much computing on devices that don't fit the traditional paradigm for working with files. Users don't interact with files on iOS, Android, or the web the way they do on PCs. Apps don't have "open" or "save" options that launch a separate window where you tap through a folder tree."

Phillip's hue is a lighting automation system. I was perusing ifttt.com and noticed some cool things like using hue to match instagram images (not sure why I'd want to do that.) I would, however, be interested in changing lighting in my room depending upon what we're doing. I do think color has a lot of impact as does smell and other environmental factors. What impact would it have -I don't know - but it is something that is now possible.

Dawn Casey-Rowe hits a tough topic that is the number one complaint that teachers have. I had her on my show not too long a go and she speaks from a tough situation with lots of blocks and bans but gets it done anyway. If your complaint is blocks and bans, then take time to read this post to focus on what you CAN do. Dawn is offering a set of PD blog posts that you'll want to dig into. "This week, we're going to discuss the white elephant in the room. Tech frustration. Many teachers struggle to bring students the type of tech experience they would like because of systemic blocks and bans, or worse, feel embarrassed as students have more access to tech than teachers do. This is the issue that brought me to the tech world myself. Students continually asked the hard questions about why they couldn't utilize technology such as smartphones, laptops, and tablets, and why phones were confiscated when students were using them for educational purposes. I wanted to improve my classroom experience and give my students more, but budget was a concern. Tech access is a problem in many schools. There are legitimate reasons-the desire of administrators to protect students from the darker side of the internet, fear of the unknown, lack of wireless capacity and budget difficulties which cause insufficient numbers of computers or the inability to upgrade existing tech. Some educational leaders have overcome these hurdles, but others are still working to get to that space."

This very useful post is one you can share with educators about the SAMR model for technology integration into the classroom. This excellent blog post from Educators Technology is one that will inform you (with great videos embedded) and help you understand what it is intended to do. With teacher evaluation systems everywhere adapting this model, every teacher should read this post.

CmapTools is a free program used by colleges around the world for creating concept maps: graphical tools for organizing and representing our knowledge about a particular issue or system. In CmapTools, concepts (boxes or nouns) are linked together by propositions (lines or verbs) to form a network that visually demonstrates connections between issue components. By creating a visual map of what we know, one can open up new ways of understanding how that system functions and how its components interrelate; this is what distinguishes CmapTools from more traditional (e.g., verbal) modes of thinking and communication. also check http://cmapskm.ihmc.us/servlet/

Documented methods that the implementation of blended learning has improved the traditional school system. The Clayton Cristensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation shares twelve of these case studies.

But a growing body of research-and a new study from the trenches of the New York public-school system-strongly suggests it might be the other way around. Giving kids the label of "smart" does not prevent them from underperforming. It might actually be causing it.

Useful information to help facilitate 21st Century Teaching and Learning. Topics include: AverVision Document Cameras, Student Response Systems, Digital Cameras, Google for Educators, Web 2.0 etc...