"Get your hashtags ready: Twitter is a far more effective source of CPD than more traditional approaches, research has found. Indeed, teachers believe they derive more from the 140 characters of a tweet than they do from several hours of seminars or lectures. Academics from two US universities surveyed 755 members of school staff about Twitter. They found that the most popular use of the social media website was for CPD, with many praising Twitter's advantages over more traditional methods. Twitter, many teachers told researchers, allowed them to create a virtual staffroom, filled entirely with their own choice of colleagues. Indeed, a middle school English teacher explained: "I have learned so much from other teachers. It has transformed my teaching. And this is my 18th year [in the profession].""

"What does privacy mean in an age of ongoing privacy breaches? With new privacy law coming online in Australia on March 12, our Privacy in Practice series explores the practical challenges facing Australian business and consumers in a world rethinking privacy."

"Map of the Internet - First of its kind on such a scale, this map aims for succesful compendation of The Internet to scale suitable for standartized online navigation. This project is still underway, new versions of this map will be available in ulterior months. Due to the immense size of the Net, only a miniscule portion of it was chosen to represent it on the map.  Otherwise, this map would be unreadable and probably undrawable in entire lifespan of average human being. This poster includes one full map of the internet, 4 minimaps showcasing NSA surveillance, most used social networks, most used internet browser, and worldwide internet penetration, list of Alexa Top 500 websites, quick timeline of the Internet History, top software companies and much more! By Martin Vargic/Jay Jason Simons"

Twitter has become so much more than the "I'm hungry" kind of service. It contains 140's of what we are. This content is hidden somewhere behind the small avatar and last tweets in a user's timeline. We are here to make it visible.  We take a bag of tweets, analyze them, and create a profile page which show-casts the person behind them. Currently we focus on behavior patterns, Famous words, Top Followers, Links, Replies, Songs, Pictures and Check-ins. 

"Nowadays, I get the same feeling of dread when I open an email to see a Microsoft Word document attached. Time and effort are about to be wasted cleaning up someone's archaic habits. A Word file is the story-fax of the early 21st century: cumbersome, inefficient, and a relic of obsolete assumptions about technology. It's time to give up "

Following today's Apple Event, Apple has just released Apple Configurator, an app that "makes it easy for anyone to mass configure and deploy iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch in a school, business, or institution." Apple Configurator is likely of the same variety as what Apple uses in its own stores to reset its showroom devices, but now it's available for organizations and schools to make updating and resetting devices effortless. This should break down a few major barriers that kept organizations from widely adopting the devices before.

With Reflection, for $15, you can now mirror your iPad onto a computer. This means you can use desktop screen-capture software to record, narrate, and annotate your iPad tutorials or simulations!

Critical thinking is a difficult concept to define in clear, objective terms. This can make it a challenging objective for teachers to implement and assess. The aim of this resource is to provide teachers with some tools to help clarify and communicate what critical thinking is and how it might be implemented as a teaching method.  This resource includes materials that can help teachers to engage their classes in critical thinking. The materials have been written with year 9 and year 10 students in mind, yet can easily be differentiated for students in years 8 and 11. The critical thinking introduction addresses what critical thinking is, where is applies in the curriculum and how to teach it. The teachers guide provides an overview of this resource in relation to the accompanying PowerPoint presentation.

Dr danah boyd speaks at RMIT about 'Networked Publics' Hear the introduction, full lecture and Q and A session and other Talking Technology podcasts at: http://www.rmit.edu.au/news/talkingtechnology

As more teachers and students adopt new technologies, including Evernote, they're looking for useful resources to help them along the way. We're excited to introduce them to Evernote for Schools, our new microsite devoted to helping those in the education community use Evernote more effectively.

"Let me guess, you heard about Pinterest. Or more like, you can't spend 15 minutes online without hearing about it… And now you're thinking, "should I jump on the wagon too?" or "another social network to keep up with?" and on top of that, everybody is talking about using it for marketing and getting tons of traffic and, you just don't see it. Alright, I hear you. I'll give you everything you need to know about Pinterest and a bunch of resources so you can decide if you or your business are ready to join the hottest trend online."

"Building 20 and brainstorming came into being at almost exactly the same time. In the sixty years since then, if the studies are right, brainstorming has achieved nothing-or, at least, less than would have been achieved by six decades' worth of brainstormers working quietly on their own. Building 20, though, ranks as one of the most creative environments of all time, a space with an almost uncanny ability to extract the best from people. Among M.I.T. people, it was referred to as "the magical incubator." "

"Mobile learning is seen by many as a disruptive technology. This is because it has been identified as a technology which holds great potential to transform the learning and teaching within a classroom. What follows is a mash up presented at the NSWDEC 5th biennial equity conference in 2011 which explains some of the issues."

This is a fabulous presentation on how teachers can use Evernote to make their record keeping so much easier. It has some great personal examples as well as embedded movies showing how to.

"The battle for supremacy in the K-12 whiteboard market is heating up. Companies are scrambling for new sources of revenue, making strategic moves to reinvent their products in the age of tablet computing, and sizing up their competitors to see what they can do to differentiate themselves from the pack. Who ultimately ends up on top has huge implications for educational technology leaders, who must determine which company is the best fit for their needs, and at a cost their districts can afford in still-difficult budget times. Complicating those decisions are changes in the technological landscape that are raising questions about the long-term educational relevance of interactive whiteboards. Do classrooms really need them in the age of iPads?"

"DocumentaryZ offers hundreds of documentaries organized into two dozen categories. Many of the videos are served via YouTube, but some are not. If you're fortunate enough to work in a school that allows you to access YouTube, DocumentaryZ is worth bookmarking. If you're looking for a documentary to use in your classroom, take a look at DocumentaryZ. I do have one word of caution, the Health and Sexuality categories do include some topics that may not be appropriate for all students. Therefore, it would be best to use DocumentaryZ for your own searches rather than letting students search the site on their own." Evaluation summary from http://goo.gl/42ouh

"Project-Based Learning (PBL) naturally lends itself to differentiated instruction. By design, it is student-centered, student-driven and gives space for teachers to meet the needs of students in a variety of ways. PBL can allow for effective differentiation in assessment as well as daily management and instruction. PBL experts will tell you this, but I often hear teachers ask for real examples, specifics to help them contextualize what it "looks like" in the classroom. In fact, the inspiration for this blog came specifically from requests on Twitter! We all need to try out specific ideas and strategies to get our brains working in a different context. Here are some specific differentiation strategies to use during a PBL project. "

"Spongelab Interactive is a group of scientists, teachers, animators, artists, and programmers passionate about science education. We believe that cutting-edge technology and stunning interactive media should be available to everyone, regardless of fiscal constraints. Most of the content on our site is free. Like what you see? It's yours. To use anything identified as premium (usually full games, interactives or case studies) you can: Redeem the credits you have earned while using our site - each piece of premium content is marked with a "P" and can be redeemed when you select it from the search results page Buy a bank of credits through our PayPal ordering system - In the My Profile area, order blocks of credits in the Buy Credits section. Purchase a Site License - Get access to all content, unlimited student seats, all for $600 CAD, contact us and we do the rest. "

This site, designed by Fuel Industries, includes three main components that are meant to be explored together. Videos: Each location -- Home, School, Mall -- includes several video shorts about a modern family's experience online. You determine which path the family members take at the critical decision point. Do you text that to your boyfriend? Do you purchase that ukulele? These shorts are just snapshots of more complicated issues. But, they all attempt to address a fundamental message of taking a moment to think before acting. Interactive Objects: As you view each video, you can collect interactive objects! An object opens up a quick game about the subject of the video. Once you collect the object, you can access it at anytime during your session. Messages: When you scroll down the site, you will find complementary messages targeted for each audience -- Students, Parents, Educators. These messages intend to strike a quick educational point. If you want to find out more about the subject, just click the link below the message. This will open up a pop-up with tips, advice, and links to partner resources. Make sure to check out the resources as linked in the educators' and parents' sections of the site! These resources point to curriculum and advice provided by Common Sense Media, ConnectSafely, and National Consumers League.

"Trello is a collaboration tool that organizes your projects into boards. In one glance, Trello tells you what's being worked on, who's working on what, and where something is in a process."