"It's as strong as steel and tough as a bulletproof vest, capable of withstanding the same amount of pressure it takes to turn carbon into a diamond. Scientists have discovered nature's newest, strongest material, and it comes from . . . a sea snail."

"Finland is planning to phase out handwriting classes in favour of keyboard skills, a recognition that this generation will never write a letter, birthday card or love letter. Instead, they'll text, tap and tweet."

"Finland is planning to phase out handwriting classes in favour of keyboard skills, a recognition that this generation will never write a letter, birthday card or love letter. Instead, they'll text, tap and tweet."

A fantastic list of apps for iPads in edu. On this page, we are showcasing Apple Apps which can help educators with teaching and learning activities, as recommended by various educators within the #UKEdchat forum. You can easily sort the columns by clicking the arrows by each heading. Are we missing an iPad app which you use a lot in school? Please let us know in the comments box at the foot of the page, or via @UKEdchat on twitter, facebook, or Google+.

Wow! A fabulous info graphic that looks at all the learning theories.

"SAMR, a model designed to help educators integrate technology into teaching and learning, was developed by Dr. Ruben Puentedura, Ph.D.. The model aims to enable teachers to design, develop, and integrate digital learning experiences that utilize technology to transform learning experiences to lead to high levels of achievement for students."

IN Australia, primary school teachers receive, on average, 17 hours of mandatory music education in their teacher education courses. In South Australia it is even less. In Finland it is 270 hours. What is 17 hours of music education supposed to achieve? One has to ask: Why bother?

Some ideas around why we created @motmedu Looking for a conference with a difference? What story do you have to tell? The #motm13 Unconference is built around stories for the purpose of making strong connections with other passionate educators who are integrating ICT with pedagogy.

It disturbs me to read this and how familiar it is to what the LNP have been spruiking. Is this the future of Australian Ed?

Looking at the New Directions for school leadership and the teaching profession discussion paper, the only evidence presented to support the assertion that Victoria's education outcomes are not improving is the report "Challenges in Australian Education: results from PISA 2009: the PISA 2009 assessment of students' reading, mathematical and scientific literacy" Specifically the New Directions paper focuses on reading literacy, where in 2009, 14,251 students were given a two-hour pen and paper comprehension test. To get an idea of what types of competencies the reading test is assessing we can look at the sample test , with questions range from comprehension about a letter in a newspaper, the ability to interpret a receipt, comprehension around a short story, an informational text, and interpreting a table. While it doesn't seem unreasonable to want our students to be able to accurately perform these kind of tasks, these tests are not a true or accurate representation of the skills and competencies our students need in today's technology driven world.

Great article that critiques the Khan Academy and flipped classroom worth a read.

Every Australian student will study the arts from their first year of school under the new national arts curriculum, which was released today for public consultation.

Another amazing Google Project. From the archaeological areas of Pompeii to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, Google's World Wonders Project aims to bring to life the wonders of the modern and ancient world. By using our Street View technology, Google has a unique opportunity to make world heritage sites available to users across the globe. Street View is a hugely popular feature of Google Maps which is already available in dozens of countries. It allows users to virtually explore and navigate a neighborhood through panoramic street-level images. With advancements in our camera technologies we can now go off the beaten track to photograph some of the most significant places in the world so that anyone, anywhere can explore them.

A fantastic read, if not for the fascinating history of reading education in the US. However it totally applies to the Australian context too.

Interesting post from a prolific Ed blogger who has always written about Ed and the "bleeding edge" worth following and very readable. This post posits that if we are to introduce a non Americanised version of PBL then we should expect systematic change over a long period of time so that it becomes ingrained in the learning culture of the school. I particularly like this position because it takes into account the longevity of the teachers capacity not only to with stand the change but also to be part of the new paradigm.

Fantastic article that discusses the complexities of being a teacher that in an impoverished school. A must read for perspective. 

Looking for a conference with a difference? What story do you have to tell? The #motm12 Unconference is built around stories for the purpose of making strong connections with other passionate educators who are integrating ICT with pedagogy. 

This is a fantastic web 2.0 tool. Upload images and annotate. You can other embed media inside the annotations. Annotations pop up as you click or hover over the objects you add. You can embed the annotated image into webpage or blog. This could be a useful tool for teachers and students. Lots of scope for creativity with layers etc. You can share to a group and set editing permissions for public or restricted people/groups for collaboration purposes. 

The title says it all. Some useful tips.

This is worrying news for schools  who have invested heavily in globalstudent. Global student  provides an important opportunity for authentic learning in developing 21Century Skills. 

Another great post by Tom Barret. Where does he find the time? Great ideas for digital writing and integrating ICT into your Literacy and english lessons