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Over the past several weeks UNESCO has been publishing individual titles in its Working Paper Series on Mobile Learning. Recently the Organization concluded the first phase of the Series by releasing two Global Themes papers.  These papers, unlike previous titles, are not region-specific.  Instead they synthesize information contained in the regional papers to identify salient trends that cut across geographic boundaries. One paper, Turning on Mobile Learning: Global Themes, highlights issues policy makers and other stakeholders should consider when infusing mobile learning into education systems.  The other paper, Mobile Learning for Teachers: Global Themes, examines characteristics shared by programmes that assist educators, either by aiding their work in schools or by helping them improve their own pedagogical and content knowledge.

Over the coming weeks UNESCO, in partnership with Nokia, will launch its Working Paper Series on Mobile Learning with the release of a set of twelve papers reviewing mobile learning initiatives, implications for ICT in education policies and how mobile technologies support teacher development. The papers will be released according to regions of the world.

"As an educator, you know that when students are given a writing assignment, many of them may need a bit of help to get it done on time. Did you know that it's possible to turn to Twitter for some help? The social media micro-blogging tool can help students write a great paper in a number of different ways."

"The situation: You've just been given your first 15-page college research paper assignment. Your professor wants you to use books and scholarly journals in writing your paper, and doesn't want you to rely solely on Google and Wikipedia to do the research. What do you do? You could call your parents or ask advice from a friend. But a far better idea would be to follow these 10 best tips, offered by visiting blogger Cheryl LaGuardia, research librarian at Harvard University's Widener Library"

Today there are over 5.9 billion mobile phone subscriptions worldwide, and for every one person who accesses the internet from a computer two do so from a mobile device. Given the ubiquity and rapidly expanding functionality of mobile technologies, UNESCO is enthusiastic about their potential to improve and facilitate learning, particularly in communities where educational opportunities are scarce. This Working Paper Series scans the globe to illuminate the ways in which mobile technologies can be used to support the United Nations Education for All Goals; respond to the challenges of particular educational contexts; supplement and enrich formal schooling; and make learning more accessible, equitable, personalized and flexible for students everywhere.

"Yesterday while we were working on the post entitled 5 Great Learning Tools for students and as we reviewed EasyBib, we decided to include here a post that would feature a list of some important bibliography and citation tools. As teachers and educators, you know how hard students struggle to properly use a quote, citation, or list bibliography items. This is even more serious when it comes to writing formal research papers."

"Nowadays it is hard to not see QR codes printed in advertisements, on products, and everywhere else. QR codes are one of the biggest trends in marketing right now, and you might wonder: can QR codes be of any use for academics? I say yes, and I urge you to use your own QR code everywhere it makes sense. That is, whenever there is an opportunity to supply an offline audience with additional online information including, but not limited to, your personal webpage, a research paper that accompanies your talk, or web resources that supplement your lecture. This post is about the basics of why, where and how to use QR codes in your research and teaching. In addition, it will also suggest a few design tweaks that allow you to blend QR codes with the surrounding context (e.g., the keynote slide or a poster). And if you invest some time you can even closely integrate a QR code with your overall self-branding efforts."

2012 looks as if it might be the year that OER and open access reach the mainstream, globally and in South Africa. In the last few months in South Africa, the national department responsible for schools had announced the take-up of a major OER science and maths resource and the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) has included in a new Green Paper a recommendation for the widespread use of open educational resources.

could be a great way to collect hand-written work without actually collecting pieces of paper. Just go around the room snapping images of your students' work. You can add notes to each image before and after the upload so it is possible to grade work using the notes field next to each image. A short video overview of the Three Ring app is embedded below.

"FlipQuiz™ provides educators with a quick way to create your own gameshow-style boards for test reviews in the classroom. Traditionally, these are created tediously, using poster board, chalkboards, PowerPoint™ or dry-erase markers on overhead slides. The review questions themselves are usually written on a separate sheet of paper. With FlipQuiz™, questions are displayed on-screen and boards are saved for later use. Combined with a beautiful board, students are more likely to be interested and stay engaged with the test review process."

How do we get academics to adopt technology in their teaching. It is clear that a large majority of older acdemics in Higher Education are so stuck in the trenches of talk-and-chalk methodologies of information transfer that they clearly fail to see the bigger picture.

Apart from organising people whom you are following into easy manageable twitter lists, you can also use list for "content curation"

Five ways to get more efficient with G Suite for Education - Using Technology Better https://t.co/Zh6utTwUlE