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Help pupils make connections in their learning with a metro/underground map.

Excellent article on email and how to get people to join you and learn from your organization via email. Written by Help Scout.

Useful resource for teaching coding

Microsoft has announced an initiative as part of the ConnectED movement in the US. Here are the details: "Windows 8.1 Pro Operating System: One of the most powerful and flexible operating systems for education, it provides the ability for students and teachers to use education apps and Microsoft Office, search for information across their device and the web, and is optimized for touch, education apps, research, productivity and digital inking, critical keys to better learning outcomes. Office 365 Education Communication and Collaboration Tool: Email, sites, online and offline document editing and storage, IM, and web conferencing capabilities for all you students for free. Plus 5 copies of Office for free for more than 12 million students at qualified institutions. Partners in learning Network Teacher Training and learning: Partners in learning provides educators with a network of nearly 1 million educators from 136 countries. It offers them a forum where they can share ideas, find free lesson plans to inspire classroom learning and develop professionally. Bing for Schools Ad-free search: An ad-free digital literacy platform aimed at helping students learn important digital skills based on access to a connected computing device, daily common-core aligned lesson plans, and a safe, private environment where search history will not be mined for data. Student training and learning: Microsoft IT Academy: For roughly 2,000 high-needs schools, Microsoft is providing academic institutions and their educators, students, and staff with digital curriculum and certification for fundamental technology skills. Affordable Broadband from EveryoneOn: A critical component to connected learning, Microsoft's non-profit partner EveryoneOn is offering home Internet service for as low $10 to the 36 million Americans living in low-income communities."

An awesome PInterest Board by edutopia with resources you can use for Digital resources Day. This is an excellent example of how you can use Pinterest Boards to share research and best practices.

Digital Learning Day is February 5. Here are Learning and how you can celebrate this in your school this week. There will be many live seminars and webinars online as well as live broadcasts. Join in!

This is a beautifully designed resource for learning English through the learner's native language. Because the learning teach the same English, it is ideal for using with English classes with learners from all over the world. The flash learning are great and the lessons are arranged in categories. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/English+As+An+Additional+Language

If you're looking for free resources for Science,English,Math,and Social Studies to add some interest during December, this page from Discover;y has lots of great things separated by grade level including lesson plans and "resources adventures."

Tinkering works. Read Sylvia Martinez and Gary Stager's book "Invent to Learn" which talks about tinkering and how to use Maker Spaces to promote it to learn more. Great points from Lifehacker: "Research in the science of learning shows that hands-on building projects help young people conceptualize ideas and understand issues in greater depth. In an experiment described in the International Journal of Engineering Education in 2009, for example, one group of eighth-graders was taught about water learning in the traditional way: classroom lectures, handouts and worksheets. Meanwhile, a group of their classmates explored the same subject by designing and constructing a water purification device. The students in the second group learned the material better: they knew more about the importance of clean drinking water and how it is produced, and they engaged in deeper and more complex thinking in response to open-ended questions on water learning and water quality... it involves a loose process of trying things out, seeing what happens, reflecting and evaluating, and trying again."

Laura Fleming is using Makerspace in her classroom. She's at New Milford HIgh School -- a place led by one of the best principals in the business, Eric Sheninger (his new book is awesome - out in January). Laura is using Mozilla's Web Literacy Standard and her Makerspace which includes robotics, stop motion animation and "Molecular gastronomy" and more. Wow. I'm fascinated. Take a look. "Setting up a Makerspace has been a priority of mine from the moment I started here at New Milford High School, and it's already well on its way to being achieved. Having a school principal who provides the perfect mix of encouragement and autonomy has, of course, been a great help, but it has also been very much a team effort: the school's tech team and custodians have been very supportive and cooperative, along with a diverse variety of students interested in 'making' experiences. At the heart of the vision for my Makerspace is to develop the space and to provide resources and opportunities that will aid in promoting web literacy.  These components encompass Mozilla's Web Literacy Standard.  The standard is make up of three key elements:  exploring, building and connecting and focuses on reading, writing and participating on the web.   "

Fascinating article on design thinking and an attempt to catalog all of the schools using design thinking. I do predict that STEM, design thinking, and creativity are going to become increasingly valued by parents and many who are disenfranchised with a testing environment that is rapidly driving everyone involved to the edge - particularly the students. "Mapping a global movement. A global movement is unfolding, and in response to the overwhelming interest around design thinking in schools, IDEO and the d.school have created a new directory - Design Thinking in Schools - to highlight the network of institutions that are at the forefront of this movement. The directory, launched in mid-October, already features a wide range of programs and resources. There's a mix of resources environments, from charter and district public schools to museums and summer camps. The programs are diverse, including after school "lab" environments and schools that use design thinking as the basis for subject-matter courses. "

I play Lumosity to help make me smarter, but if you're starting out in a job or just want to learn more, Mind Tools focuses on career skills. Very niche site and toolkit layout. The world belongs to those who are lifelong learners. It has never been easier but learning is never truly easy - it requires time and commitment - but the learning are here.

Kim shares her presentation from GEC13. I've worked with Kim and she's been so helpful to me through the years. Hope this enlightens those of you wanting to participate in global projects.

PBS Learning media has some cool Learning and games for kids including a new PBS Math club to help kids with math. You can sign up for free for these Learning. There is a middle school history game and also a virtual underwater tour you can use as well.

The guidebook from Edsurge on how to connect. Share this with educators to help them learn how to connect and use the many online resources for educators.

A lovely resource to learn and practise Chinese numbers by listening to the Mandarin and typing the correct answers on the keypad. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Mandarin+%26+Chinese+culture

A great resource for learning about the area of 2D shapes, including rectangles, triangles and compound shapes. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Maths

NOTE: The linked article is NSFW - it has a word of profanity where the author quotes Good Will Hunting. But the points are right. Some teachers worry they will be outdated or not needed with the online education movement. This article has some great points that I agree with. I do think online learning is part of our future but perhaps not the savior some make it out to be. "The online education utopians ignore the fact that free learning has existed for decades in the form of the public library and despite that availability, every kid within bicycling distance to his local branch didn't turn into a self taught entrepreneur. Suggesting that online courses are the cure-all for our educational needs is like saying all you have to do to teach kids in the ghetto is give away textbooks on the corner. Recent studies have shown there is a significant gap between the completion rates of online students compared to classroom based students. When you consider that online learning is often promoted as a cost effective solution for at-risk learners who don't have the financial learning for face-to-face instruction, it becomes clear that the online movement is offering a product that makes it easier to drop out to students who are already more prone to quitting in the first place."