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Formative Assessment, assessing student performance routinely as instruction unfolds can transform teaching and learning. Writer actively experimented with giving more feedback to my students, using rubrics, models of student work, and having students assess their own work as well as that of their peers. Problem is Baltimore County school administrators have ordered all teachers to begin using a grading system next month that will require them to judge whether each of their students has mastered more than 100 specific skills. Elementary school teachers have classes of 25 kids while highschool teachers can have more than 100 students. Over the course of a year, many teachers would have to make as many as 10,000 marks indicating whether a child had learned a task.

"ur Best Practices in Virtual Worlds Teaching Guide produced by University of Derby and Aston University in collaboration and funding from the Higher Education Academy Psychology Network and JISC is now available in soft and hard copy. The guide features tips and advice on setting up teaching in virtual worlds using problem-based learning methods. It's designed primarily for those teaching Psychology, humanities and the social sciences but will be useful to anyone starting out teaching using virtual worlds. "

What can Google Apps do for your learning institution? Students, educators and help desk administrators at four American Universities share their stories on how Google Apps has reduced help desk calls, helped students and teachers to collaborate, provided free spaces for student organisations to host web sites, solved email problems and provided 24/7 mobile access to information.

"Games like World of Warcraft give players the means to save worlds, and incentive to learn the habits of heroes. What if we could harness this gamer power to solve real-world problems? Jane McGonigal says we can, and explains how."

"Well the iPad has really hit the news in education circles since it's release last year. I'm sure lots of teachers are wondering whether it's hype and what the true potential of these devices are as tools for learners. I've had my iPad for about 8 months now, so I've decided to share my reflections so far on what I like about the iPad, what potential I feel it offers for developing course books and course materials and some of the problems."

Good iPad review listing some pros and cons. The time is ripe to get staff thinking of how to use these in their classroom.

"Smokescreen is a cutting-edge game about life online. We all use Facebook, MySpace, Bebo and MSN to keep up with our mates - and we've all heard the stories about parties on Facebook being mobbed, or people getting stalked on MSN. The question is, what would you do if it happened to you? Over 13 missions, Smokescreen follows the story of Max Winston and Cal Godfrey, two mates who've set up an exclusive social network called White Smoke. After Cal's involved in a car accident and falls into a coma, White Smoke becomes huge - and starts attracting huge problems. Each mission sees you explore the world of White Smoke, and find out who you can trust - and who you can't."

From Camilla Elliott. A gateway to understanding life outside your home. Use the country comparison tool to compare living conditions in your own country to those of another. You can also use the visualisation tool to help understand the impact of a disaster. The Pakistan Flood and BP Oil Spill are currently featured. Advertising and comments are a problem for classroom use but still a valuable teaching tool.

"Hara Estroff Marano is Editor-at-Large of Psychology Today in the US. She argues that modern attitudes to parenting mean anxious mums and dads are crowding out the unsupervised play that kids used to enjoy. As a result children don't get much opportunity to solve their own problems, to practise co-operation and to test their leadership skills."

Asks the provocative question, are we raising a nation of wimps?

A post from Mashable. People want the hands-down, easiest way to embed practically things onto their blog or website. nThere are many7 tools to help you do that. "The nature of the web is such that sharing and republishing content is common - and often even encouraged. The problem is, we increasingly store bits of our data on various services scattered across the web. Aggregating that content into one centralized personal hub can be time consuming - requiring user to manually copy text and links or upload files and photos - or fiddling with RSS feeds trying to make content automagically appear"

GridCalc is a easy to use grid calculator. Just enter the desired width of your page and an aproximate range for your column and gutter width and the calculator will give you all the possible combinations within the limits you entered. You get a nice visual representation of the results, click preview on a result and you get a better presentation of how the grid can be used. When you have decided which grid configuration you want to use you can download the configuration as a css file to use in your project.

Activate encourages games that can change civic and ecological outcomes in real world ( problem solving) and teach how to create those games also.

This is part of the 'change' problem, the way we attempt to persuade is simply not effective.

One of the problems facing many teachers is trying to make students aware of the need to respect copyright and fair use of digital content. Even though students can generally appreciate the principles behind the need to pay due regard to the originators of these artefacts too often they are unable to locate anything other than copyright material. Locating suitable Creative Commons licenced content can be a real nightmare for students and teachers alike. To this end SitePoint has gathered up over 30 of the best resources online for audio, video, images and more for finding just the perfect Creative Commons licensed item for use in your next project. So, have a look around and get inspired!

"Gamification" describes turning real-world situations into games. Gamification is a neologism -- a newly invented term that's becoming commonly used. The word gamification was likely born in the realm of casual conversation to convey the idea of turning something into a game. People like entrepreneur and author Gabe Zichermann, though, have given gamification its own unique definition. Zichermann, a respected authority on gamification and its applications, defines the term as "the process of using game thinking and mechanics to engage audiences and solve problems." In short, he describes gamification as "non-fiction gaming."

Employers are expressing increasing dissatisfaction with the ability of college graduates to access, evaluate, and communicate information; to use information technology (IT) tools effectively; and to work well within groups across cultural lines. A change of instructional paradigms--from passive to active (authentic) learning strategies, such as project-based learning, problem-based learning, or inquiry-based learning--is clearly needed.

"While attending this particular workshop I was, at first, contemplating how I could utilize this tool as an administrator. As those thoughts wandered, the instructor repeatedly said the words "expand the walls of the classroom". That caught my attention and then I had no problem envisioning how the teachers I worked with could utilize a wiki to do just that."

Take Control aims to support gamers whose gaming has gone from fun to harmful. It also has information for parents and friends of gamers who may have gaming problems. We tapped into expert advice from ten computer/console/phone gamers aged 12-17 as well as from university researchers and experts on gambling addiction to put together some screening tools, checklists and resources. Visit www.rasa.org.au/takecontrol to learn more.

Insights drawn from neuroscience not only provide educators with a scientific basis for understanding some of the best practices in teaching, but also offer a new lens through which to look at the problems teachers grapple with every day. By gaining insights into how the brain works-and how students actually learn-teachers will be able to create their own solutions to the classroom challenges they face and improve their practice. see video