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A combination of focused activities and creative, open-ended technology projects can help you take a new approach to building literacy with your elementary students. Use these articles, samples, and lessons to find new ideas and approaches that will work for your learners.

When we heard the buzz surrounding the new role video games are playing in education, we had to throw our hat in the ring. Today, innovative educators are finding ways to incorporate Portal™ and Portal 2 into their classrooms-helping teach physics and critical-thinking skills. It's eye-opening to see how video games can be used in amazing and unexpected ways to help educate our next generation. In response we've created Teach with Portals and there you'll find the beginnings of an engaging set of lesson plans, created by teachers, using the Portal 2 Puzzle Maker. Teachers sign up for the Education Beta and get access to Portal 2 and the Portal 2 Puzzle Maker and a teacher-created collection of puzzles for as many students as they'd like - for free. Using interactive tools like the Puzzle Maker to draw students in makes physics, math, logic, spatial reasoning, probability, and problem-solving interesting, cool and fun, which gets us one step closer to our goal - engaged, thoughtful kids!

The unprecedented uptake of mobile devices, in particular mobile phones, in both developed and developing countries opens up new possibilities for increasing education access, equity and quality. Mobile learning, a growing field of ICT in education, has the potential to significantly impact the delivery of education. However, an enabling policy environment is needed to fully realize this potential. UNESCO's research has revealed a dearth of policies related to mobile learning. To address this gap UNESCO, in broad consultation with relevant stakeholders, will develop a set of guidelines to help national government policy makers and educators create environments that enable the safe, affordable and sustainable use of mobile technologies for education.

These videos were created for teachers to help them to incorporate technology into their teaching. Just click and a video will open and take you through how to use that technology. If you want to start straight away, just click on any of the links on the left.My own background is in teaching English, so if you scroll down you will see a special section of ELT videos which are grouped separatetely. There is also a special page of videos for students interested in multimedia, where you can learn Flash, Director and Photoshop Click here for Multimedia.

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are online learning events that can take place synchronously and asynchronously for months. Participants assemble to hear, see, and participate in backchannel communication during live lectures. They read the same texts at the same time, according to a calendar. Learning takes place through self-organized networks of participants, and is almost completely decentralized: individuals and groups create blogs or wikis around their own interpretations of the texts and lectures, and comment on each other's work; each individual and group publicises their RSS feed, which are automatically aggregated by a special (freely available) tool, gRSShopper. Every day, an email goes out to all participants, aggregating activity streams from all the blogs and wikis that engage that week's material. MOOCs are a practical application of a learning theory known as "connectivism" that situates learning in the networks of connections made between individuals and between texts.

If you are looking for open online courses, please consult one of the sources below. If you are offering a MOOC (that is not from one of the sources listed) please send email to stephen@downes.ca and I will included it in the MOOC Course List.

Google in EDU offers open technology to support learning for everyone, everywhere. Tools like Chromebooks and Google Apps for Education use the web to capture students' imaginations and inspire their curiosity. In this document, you'll find a compilation of resources that schools and districts across the country have used to successfully guide their Google technology implementation.

Sme great alternatives if you want to host your communities online using all the social media tools

"An evolution on the idea of MOOCs is the "selectively open online course" (or SOOC) - simply, a MOOC with an entrance requirement designed to reduce the "unwanted diversity." This could be proven competency (e.g., pass an entrance quiz), a credential (e.g., have a degree), or membership (e.g., be in the university's alumni network). The theory is that a more uniform student body will lead to improved peer-to-peer collaboration and higher learner outcomes."

Free online course, audio books, movies, textbooks and lots more

The OSP Collection provides curriculum resources that engage students in physics, computation, and computer modeling. Computational physics and computer modeling provide students with new ways to understand, describe, explain, and predict physical phenomena. Browse the OSP simulations or learn more about our tools and curriculum pieces below.

"Curriculum aligned textbooks with embedded videos, simulations, powerpoint presentations and more. "

Curriculum aligned textbooks with embedded videos, simulations, powerpoint presentations and more.