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The rationale for seeking open terms of both access and use is as follows. Free access provides the literature to at least five overlapping audiences: researchers who happen upon open-access research articles while browsing the Web rather than a password-protected database; researchers at institutions that cannot afford the subscription prices for the growing literature; researchers in disciplines other than that of a journal's intended audience, who would not otherwise subscribe; patients, their families, students, and other members of the public with an interest in the information but without the means to subscribe; and researchers' computers running text-mining software to analyze the literature. In addition, granting readers full reuse rights unleashes the full range of human creativity for translating, combining, analyzing, adapting, and preserving the scientific record, whereas traditional copyright arrangements in scientific publishing increasingly inhibit scholarly communication.

"At New Milford High School, it is not uncommon to see students finishing homework assignments on their MacBooks in the cafeteria or using cellphones in class to text an answer. "It's giving them the freedom and autonomy to use the devices to support what they are doing in their classes," said Principal Eric Sheninger."

The first iPhone text message screenshot generator.

The Amarillo Area Center for Advanced Learning in Texas is replacing textbooks with digital open educational resources (OER) for its math and science classes using iPads. The specialty high school in Texas recently implemented a 1:1 iPad initiative, and the OER pilot program is intended to help cut costs while providing students with access to high-quality, easily updatable learning resources on their iPads. The district selected a free, Web-based solution, Net Texts, to provide teachers with access to a library of more than 21,000 free OER learning resources from Curriki, Khan Academy, and several universities and colleges.

"To contend with these annoying developments, teens aren't deleting their Facebook accounts; they're just using them less and less, spending more time on Twitter and Instagram, where conservations are limited to short-form text, links, and simple photos; or Tumblr, which emphasizes content over consolidated user profiles."

"Upload your script, choose some backgrounds, and magically created a professional-looking storyboard of your movie. Or the graphic novel version of your text-based anything. Amazon Studios released Storyteller today to allow writers and filmmakers to quickly, easily - and cheaply - storyboard their scripts. I've tried it, and while the service is still in beta, it's surprisingly good."

Turn any book or document into a digital classroom. Subtext is a free iPad app that allows classroom groups to exchange ideas in the pages of digital texts. You can also layer in enrichment materials, assignments and quizzes-opening up almost limitless opportunities to engage students and foster analysis and writing skills.

"By "it", I mean my work, which includes images, visuals, infographics, infoflyers, blog posts, how to guides, text, jpgs, videos, pdfs, etc.  Just because I love my work, spend HOURS writing, designing and creating does not mean I want someone else to take credit for it. Just because I share my work for free online DOES NOT mean that I give away ALL my rights. I have chose a special kind of copyright license to encourage others to (hopefully) learn from my work."

"I also love using Pocket and Evernote. Pocket saves all the interesting articles and blog posts that I want to read later. I could not survive without it. Evernote helps me remember notes and acts as my on-the-go text editor (plus it saves all the good restaurants I have tried, too). I also use Evernote+my Moleskine as my day organizer. Every day I create a grid and categorize my to-do's as either quick or long, and either high or low priority. Then I take a picture with my Evernote, have the picture always up on my screen, and use reminders to nudge me at the end of the day to reflect on my productivity. "

"Fought July 1-3, 1863, the Battle of Gettysburg took nearly 50,000 American lives and is considered to be the turning point in the Civil War.  Phillip Pfuhl has created a brief tour that uses text, audio and overlays to show how the battle progressed."

"While eTextbook use is increasingly common, the reasons appear logistical (lower cost and convenience) rather than for pedagogical. The pedagogical side cannot be ignored. Publishers and providers of digital content need to increase the interactivity of the content in order to go beyond simple digital facsimiles of print versions. Additionally, instructors need to select eTextbooks with high quality features, as well as model the use of the eTextbook to show how to read and study effectively from the digital resource."

"Over half of American college students have used an eTextbook in their studies, but only around 3% of textbook sales in the United States are digital. Institutional adoption of eTextbooks is low in the United States, as only 5% are broadly deploying them. Adoption in the United States is typically limited to pilots or individual faculty."

"We met with the most obvious first: the textbook managers at the campus bookstore, where only 1% of book sales were in digital form. We received a demonstration of the digital platform and are now doing informal testing. This led to the creation of a Digital Course Materials page, to share the university's materials ordering policy, information about the digital platform, and textbook alternatives."

"Skitch lets you save what you capture to your desktop, of course, but the program also connects with Evernote, WordPress, and Flickr. If you have an Evernote account, you can save images online and share them in FaceBook, Twitter, or anywhere else you like. One of the best features, though, is annotation. You can add text, arrows, et cetera - and even edit them later on."

"Note that Virtual Worlds is chugging out of the Trough of Disillusionment, with only 5-10 years to arrive at the Plateau of Productivity. Big Data and Gamification have a bit more hype to hype before their demise. In-Memory Analytics and Text Analytics are just now descending into the Trough! On, no! While Predictive Analytics is cruising!"

It is hard to imagine holding a university-level class today in which students do not engage with the web or social media in one form or another, whether by using Google search, bookmarking or sharing an article, taking an online survey, posting or commenting on a blog, or using e-mail or text messaging. So, what rules should we, as instructors, follow to ensure no legal or Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) issues arise?

"In my remarks today I'll try to discuss some of the reasons why engagement using digital texts and tools in our classrooms is difficult. One of the main impediments to this work is the fact that the Common Core State Standards make little room for integration of new literacies. My talk will focus on the nature of information on the Internet and its implications for how teachers think about reading comprehension, critical thinking, and learning in a digital information age. In short, we need to embrace all literacies. We will explore how the Internet poses new challenges for global learners that extend beyond traditional reading comprehension skills in order to encompass these new literacies as well as the higher level thinking skills associated with them."

Chadron Public Schools have yet to see the cost savings in textbook purchases that was expected from providing iPad tablet computers to all of its high school students. In discussion of the district's financial position at Monday's school board meeting, Chadron High School principal Jerry Mack told board members that costs for textbooks haven't gone down, even though the books themselves may not be used by students, because of publishers' pricing strategies. "Publishers demand that you purchase the hard copy before you get the digital version," said Mack. "For some texts, in order to get the digital copy, they require you to get the key first," added technology director Uati Paopao.

"Has the online course creation market gone stale already? Launched on Tuesday, newcomer Versal hopes to breathe life and possibilities into what they see as a very limited set of tools that currently exist. Their course-building platform offers a set of pre-made gadgets that allow teachers to build interactive courses on their platform through a what-you-see-is-what-you-get drag and drop interface. To add interactivity beyond basic pictures, texts and embedded quizzes, Versal uses gadgets to create interactive graphs, simulations, and models. With these gadgets, teachers can build models or simulations that the students use to experience and manipulate the content they are learning."

"A new study from the Stanford Graduate School of Education flips upside down the notion that students learn best by first independently reading texts or watching online videos before coming to class to engage in hands-on projects. Studying a particular lesson, the Stanford researchers showed that when the order was reversed, students' performances improved substantially."