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With a bank of 40,000 educational apps that have been cataloged, reviewed, and approved, a Tennessee initiative hopes to make it easier for educators to use apps in the classroom and beyond. Sometimes, finding the right app can feel like searching for a needle in a haystack.

Seth Godin is giving away a book online, encouraging it to be spread among teachers and getting hundreds of thousands of readers. He usually writes about marketing and the spread of ideas, but he takes on education in this series of blog-post-provocative-conversation-starting writing. He states, "School was invented to create a constant stream of compliant factory workers to the growing businesses of the 1900s. It continues to do an excellent job at achieving this goal, but it's not a goal we need to achieve any longer."

Students at George R. Staley Upper Elementary School compete in a math video game that incorporates the STEM curriculum

This article explains why twitter is increasing in appeal among teens. Quite interesting. I thought I posted this article awhile ago, but just realized I never shared it with this group! Sorry guys

The nonprofit group called TED, known for streaming 18-minute video lectures about big ideas, today opened a new YouTube channel designed for teachers and professors, with videos that are even shorter. The new channel, called TED-Ed, was announced a year ago, but its leaders are only now unveiling the project's first videos.

Doodling - self-mechanism for processing info and sustaining engagement?

Pixar director Andrew Stanton's talk on what guides him as a storyteller parallels what we strive to do as educators: to inspire our audience's sense of wonder, challenge, and relatedness. "The audience," says Stanton, "actually wants to work for their meal. They just don't want to know that they're doing that." I'm not sure if storytelling is an apt metaphor for all learning situations, but I personally am inspired to look to storytellers for tips on how to connect with my learners.

Andrew Stanton is also the brilliance behind "Finding Nemo" one of the better Pixar films. "Working for their meal" and the "2+2" notion relates to honoring people's intelligence and not making the story or lesson or video game too simple or the goal too obvious. Dr. Dede has said in the past that to engage students who struggle, we should give them more dificult conepts and make them accessible. Similar ideas.

SuperBetter is a game designed to increase the player's "personal resilience" or grit while facing health or illness recovery challenges. Jane McGonigal is one of the creators. The game is in closed beta; it looks like you can sign up to play at least part of it from this site.

Not bad.

Just for fun.

Etherpad is a hosted web service that allows really real-time document collaboration for groups of users. Etherpad is open source; you can host your own Etherpad by downloading the source code or try Etherpad for free on one of the Public Sites.

The benefits of playing video games (in moderation).

I came across this great question posted in Quora. One of the responders, Anne Halsall listed structured narratives, diverse hand- drawn animation, more difficult puzzles (less hints), and a single-player experience as hallmarks of 90s adventures games. The highlights of these adventure games are a stark contrast to the conditions, at least according to Gee, that make video games useful learning tools (e.g.,open-ended, immediate feedback, opportunities for socialization). This lead me to wonder, are the trends in contemporary game design driving engagement theory, or is the research driving game design?

Chronicle of Higher Education Q&A with researchers from Georgia Tech's Center for 21st Century Universities. Highlighted are many of the more recent technologies, as well as their effects on higher education's future.

The book is available for a free download. The author is the post of the article below. I have not read the book.

Please feel free to join in this dialogue, which is an attempt to shape national policy.

How can we help these children feel the sense of flow when in math class? Children who get anxious about doing math have brain function that differs from children who don't, with math-specific fear interfering with the parts of the brain involved in problem-solving, according to functional MRI (fMRI) scans of 7- to 9-year olds that formed the basis of a study published online March 20 in Psychological Science.

This just looks cool! I can imagine science teachers using it in their classrooms.

Using open source Virtual World software to intentionally disrupt an education system. A bold vision and I think an opportunity for bold research.

An interesting article on "fun failure" and how failure can be powerful motivator for learning.