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Portal is a fun, innovative 3D first-person game known for its unique physics gameplay and sense of humor. It's over 4 years old now, but still enjoyable and clever. It's been used in education as a way for students to explore physics, and also as a gameworld ripe for student content creation. The game is available as a free download for PC/Mac through 9/20.

The digital ethnographer Michael Wesch on the dark side of social media, what we learned from Iran, and why the future of the web depends on human interests-not market interests.

Envisioning and exploring classroom and education in the future - the video of a panel session at the end of this article is quite interesting. "Learning communities are growing beyond the walls of classrooms. But before we move too fast into that realm, it is critical that students get the support they need to navigate this frontier. They need to learn to think critically, synthesize information, and communicate their ideas effectively and clearly."

As we're researching on emerging technology, much of the literature we read is based on credible sources, or so we hope. This talk highlights the danger of publication bias and the importance of knowing where research has shown that things work, and where they don't. By focusing too much on the stuff that works, sometimes, we inadvertently ignore the research that shows it doesn't.

Ted talk exploring the fairly sad side effects and unintended consequences of drugs prescribed for learning disabilities, as technology is increasingly used on all fronts to improve learning.

simSchool is a classroom simulation that supports the rapid accumulation of a teacher's experience in analyzing student differences, adapting instruction to individual learner needs, gathering data about the impacts of instruction, and seeing the results of their teaching. It's a virtual learning environment where instructors can explore instructional strategies, examine classroom management techniques, and practice building relationships with students that will translate into increased learning.

There are some interesting points made by the participants in this debate about online education.

How are learning analytics being used In education? Data-mining and measurement for educational purposes.

Also on learning analytics and data http://www.emergingedtech.com/2012/04/exploring-the-khan-academys-use-of-learning-data-and-learning-analytics/ Through the lens of Khan Academy.

A brief overview of 10 different schools/school districts that have implemented BYOD programs. A good starting point for those who want to explore what BYOD looks like in different schools, as well as the different ways each school uses such programs.

In recent years there has been a major push to equip classrooms with technology, including laptops, overhead projectors, interactive white boards and tablets. It has become big business. But there are questions about whether the investment is paying off. This series explores the push to digitize the American classroom and whether the promises are being fulfilled.

This comment from a reader on one of the articles (Inflating the Software Report Card) sums it up rather nicely: "Data-driven, individualized instruction aimed at identifying a student's strengths and weaknesses, is not perfect, nor can it replace great teachers. But it can and does allow gifted students to zoom ahead, average students to keep up, and struggling students to catch up. If we really want math education to become part of the fabric of our kids' lives, not just raising their scores on a standardized test, but helping them become more competent and effective adults, we need to take advantage of all of the technology available".

More students now than ever are taking online classes. This article explores this and the implications.

Several museums in New York City are now incorporating mobile app technology into their exhibits. An interesting exploration on how this technology can play out in a variety of types of museums.

To that heading, viewers can explore ambitious use of technological tools to improve science teaching and learning

This is a bit of an older article, but I think it's a great illustration of the way that 'gamification' can transform the exploration of a real-world conundrum into an engaging, appealing experience (with very practical applications).

Also a neat example of the ability of modern formats to draw upon the expertise and skills of an enormous (but broadly distributed and amorphous) community

Kids send camera 93,000 ft into atmosphere (based on linear discent rate.) "Want to inspire middle school and high school students to launch things into space."

An article describing the use of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to help deaf children learn American Sign Language (ASL).

This article from the Economist gives a background on augmented reality, and explores future prospects: 2D bar codes, the evolution of Google Latitude, the future compass enabled Iphone.

I like the way the Nokia researcher describes "virtual reality" dividing into "augmented reality" (real world with layers of additional information) and "augmented virtuality" (virtual game worlds being made more information-rich). Helpful distinction.

"Virtual reality never really died, he says-it just divided itself in two, with AR enhancing the real world by overlaying information from the virtual realm, and VR becoming what he calls "augmented virtuality", in which real information is overlaid onto virtual worlds, such as players' names in video games... its potential is huge."