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"Teaching Appz is a great new website to help teachers to find apps for iPads, iPods and other mobile devices (including Android, Playbook and web) that can be used in the classroom"

* Teachers use our Web site to select existing courses or to create new courses by mixing and matching items from our library with their own educational material. * Students use our iPad app to download and use these courses, filled with videos, slideshows, e-books, PDFs, text, audiobooks, and Web links. Whether reading the latest e-book that has been assigned, or watching a video for the next homework assignment, students will feel more engaged and in charge of their learning.

"Even though it's October it still feels very much like the beginning of the year. One of the first thoughts that many teachers have about their students is "they look so little!" It's true. Those tall confident students that left us have gone on to be "little" to next year's teacher and we have our own new crop of "little" people to educate. This becomes even more pronounced in a technology classroom. Everything takes longer, typing, starting, opening, finding, searching. Whatever it is they need time to figure it out. Patience is key. So what can we do?"

"A summer of sport is nearly here and all over the UK schools are sharing Olympic Fever through social networks and smartphones. As the Olympic Flame makes its way around the country, students are filming it pass through their town and uploading it to a safe social network for schools using the new MakeWaves iPhone app. The free MakeWaves app makes it safe and easy for pupils of all ages to upload video and images, post comments and take part in competitions instantly from an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad. Specially designed teacher tools allow educators to quickly take creative learning outside the classroom and easily manage their student's social media work anywhere."

"The iPad, iPod touch, and iPhone make excellent toys and learning tools for kids, but if you've seen a youngin' with an iOS device you know it's only a matter of time before the inquisitive mind of a child escapes the current application and ends up elsewhere. That inevitable sequence can be stopped in its tracks thanks to Guided Access, a great new feature brought to iOS in 6.0 that basically functions as "Kid Mode", whereby any iOS device can be locked into an application with the hardware buttons disabled. This is one of those must-have features for teachers and parents, and using it is easy."

"One of the things we need to be doing as educators is to critically evaluate the resources and learning experiences that we provide for our students. This is even more important when we are spending vast sums of public money to implement new or innovative hardware devices into our schools. At the moment only short term studies have been released showing the benefits or not of using 1:1 tablet programs. There are few that are easily accessible to teachers or that outline specific strategies for implementing tablet programs. It would good to create a collection of these if people are aware of them. Send them through and I will add them to this article. These could even be cited when making the argument for implementing such programs. "

"The buddy program is a huge part of our community because the kids get to work with others," she said. "Older kids work with younger kids… and they get to be teachers. They retain so much more if they get to teach what they've learned."

What latest gadgets and gizmos are going to change your classroom in 2013? It's hard to know exactly what will catch on and what won't, but the following list showcases some of the emerging new technologies, software, and platforms available. With their innovation and practicality, many of these are poised to enter the classroom and change the way students and teachers learn permanently.

"While many schools may already have an Apple VPP program already in place, we know that a number of teachers will also be purchasing apps themselves. In this webinar, Greg and Beth will elaborate on the App Backpack blog post and explore free as well as paid-for apps to meet essential learning objectives. This event will be held LIVE at 4:00 pm EST in our Blackboard Collaborate Room."