"8 Apps to Prepare You for Your Next Presentation or Webmeeting"

"Digital Exams on the iPad"

"So I asked everyone on Twitter for some advice on what th best apps were out there, and @narthernlad came back with so many suggestions I'm going to split them over a couple of posts! Here are some suggestions for literacy apps to try with your students. If you have any other suggestions for a great iPad literacy app, I'd love to hear them. Just add them in the comments below."

In April of 2011, the USD No. 448 Board of Education, based upon a recommendation supported by the administration and staff, voted to approve iPads for all staff and all students in grades 4, 9, 10, 11, and 12 beginning in August 2011. We have been "pioneers" in the iPad one to one arena. The journey has been challenging, interesting, frustrating, enlightening, but most of all rewarding. Our staff has done an incredible job of embracing change and integrating iPads into our curriculum. They are providing an extremely important service to other educators--being a model school. What I have observed is that because this is such a new concept, other educators are much more inclined to get excited about the concept if they are able to see it in action. Thank you USD No. 448 staff members for providing a working model for other educators.

In April of 2011, the USD No. 448 Board of Education, based upon a recommendation supported by the administration and staff, voted to approve iPads for all staff and all students in grades 4, 9, 10, 11, and 12 beginning in August 2011. We have been "pioneers" in the iPad one to one arena. The journey has been challenging, interesting, frustrating, enlightening, but most of all rewarding. Our staff has done an incredible job of embracing change and integrating iPads into our curriculum. They are providing an extremely important service to other educators--being a model school. What I have observed is that because this is such a new concept, other educators are much more inclined to get excited about the concept if they are able to see it in action. Thank you USD No. 448 staff members for providing a working model for other educators.

Who is "Reber", anyway? David Reber, a.k.a. - "me". I am a native of Lawrence, Kansas. Alumnus of Hillcrest Elementary School, West Junior High School, Lawrence High School, and The University of Kansas. I hold a BS in Biology from KU, an MS in Science Education from Emporia State University, and a Kansas Teaching License for high school Biology and General Science. I began teaching in Lawrence Public Schools in 1996. After one year at Lawrence High School, I transferred to Free State High School for it's inaugural year in 1997 and have taught there ever since. Courses I've taught include Biology, Advanced Placement Biology, Applied Biology, Plant and Animal Biology, Ecology and Environmental Science, Human Anatomy and Physiology, Human Biology, General Chemistry, and Science Explorations.

"Chicago Public Schools' is lifting a ban on YouTube as part of its efforts to expand digital learning in the classroom."

"A raccoon with the word "why" Phylo is a project that began as a reaction to the following nugget of information: Kids know more about Pokemon creatures than they do about real creatures*. We think there's something wrong with that. Apparently, so do many others. picture of a bird with the word "what" Phylo is: (1) a card game that makes use of the wonderful, complex, and inspiring things that inform the notion of biodiversity; (2) an exercise in crowd sourcing, open access, and open game development; and (3) FREAKIN' AWESOME! picture of a plant with the word "who" The phylo project is the product of the kind and (frankly) amazing contributions of many many individuals who have given art, science expertise, gaming advice, programming chops, and more. A card usually begins its life by someone submitting art to this Flickr pool, but you can also develop new games, help out with programming, or providing general feedback by leaving comments on the blog or forum. picture of a lady bug and the word "how" You can Start quickly by printing yourself a starter deck and checking out a set of rules. Alternatively, you can just collect and print the cards by going to the card section and "select"ing the ones you like."

Just crazy, fun stuff, alternative, people utilizing simple internet tech, commucation, fund, funny

"Creating & Reading on the iPad: PDF vs. ePub A cart of 30 iPads showed up at my school the other day & I get to organized the deployment and classroom use, a daunting task. Prior to the 30 iPad cart, I have been working with teachers and students to use 4 iPads, primarily in two math classes. I have blogged about both ideas here and here. "

"t is good to question what we see, as all too often we adhere to the life script that everyone else is happily playing out - for me Eli Pariser's book The Filter Bubble helped me to once again question what we take as the truth, in his case the internet that is presented to us. But what if there is a school filter bubble?"

"Apple and education have always gone hand in hand, but Cupertino has taken a bold leap with iBooks 2, a full version update offering zero new features for those of us who graduated from school long ago. But for iPad-toting students, the company's new digital textbook initiative is a revelation. iBooks 2 is the same as it ever was, adding only the ability to read interactive, multitouch textbooks on the iPad, purchased via iBookstore on your tablet or through iTunes on the desktop; iPhone and iPod touch users are sadly left out on this fresh feature. But despite Apple's hyperbolic marketing, iBooks 2 arrives with a mere nine textbooks from two of the three top publishers. "

Downloadable, printable posters for your classroom I love quotes and always have them posted in my classroom. Here are three I just finished and plan to hang in my classroom."

"For our latest redesign project, Studio 360 asked the New York design firm Hyperakt to rebrand teachers. The design team found inspiration in the words of poet and educator Mark Van Doren."

"The American school year has been largely unchanged for decades, despite evolutions in culture, demographics, technology, and a wide range of other social and economic factors. In our increasingly global economy, this is starting to become a disadvantage, especially as students in many school districts are struggling to meet national standards and are simply unable to keep up with their international counterparts, many of whom spend many more hours in the classroom than they do. While there is no one magic solution to reforming schools, many districts around the nation have sought to level the playing field by adding more time to the school day or school year to more closely match those of other nations. While some changes have been more successful than others, what is clear is that the school year that worked for students decades ago simply isn't practical for today's students. Read on to find out some of the biggest reasons many are moving to extend or rearrange the school year for American students."

"We are poised to launch the new round of QuadBlogging to start in January 2012. If you don't know what QuadBlogging is, here's a short video produced by pupils in Mrs. Yollis' class in Los Angeles, Mr. Salsich's Class in Connecticut, Class B4 in New Zealand and Class 2KM and 2KJ Leopold School, Australia:"

"Tech Tools Made Simple SuperTeacherTools.com is dedicated to providing technology tools for teaching that are quick and easy to download, learn, and start using in your classroom. In the site, you will find a variety of review games, classroom management software, and other miscellaneous tools for educators."

"The debates about schools and social media are a subject of great public and policy interests. In reality, the debate has been shaped by one key fact: the almost universal decision by school administrators to block social media. Because social media is such a big part of many students social lives, cultural identities, and informal learning networks schools actually find themselves grappling with social media everyday but often from a defensive posture-reacting to student disputes that play out over social media or policing rather than engaging student's social media behaviors."

"Why I still want MS and HS to have a Laptop I received a tweet a couple days ago asking why I still believed laptops, in this case MacBooks, are the right choice for middle school and high school students."