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"Teachers who bring digital storytelling into the classroom are discovering what makes this vehicle for expression worth the effort. They watch students gain proficiency in writing and research, visual literacy, critical thinking, and collaboration. They see students take part in a range of learning styles. Of course, they also see students make authentic use of technology. Sometimes, they even hear students discover the power of their own voice."

"This past semester, William Kiker and I (Kelly Wroblewski) applied to be part of a pilot iPad program at our high school.  As members of a small project based  learning community within Austin High School in Austin, TX, we latched on to the ShowMe app pretty quickly."

"There are a multitude of ways that Google Hangouts can make learning more engaging and personalized for students, teachers and administrators. This free web conferencing tool can make a big difference for classrooms by connecting students to people outside of the classroom, and it can make regular communication and collaboration much easier for teachers and administrators."

"Today at its I/O event, Google announced Google Play for Education: A version of the Play store that is aimed and curated for young kids. Applications that are in the Play for Education store are sorted by age and genre. So, users can find math-based applications that are appropriate for their kindergartener, who wants to learn more math. However, what is most interesting about Play for Education is the ability for administrators to send out applications to their entire tablet fleet. So, if a school wants to send an app to their 200 Nexus 7 devices, they can do so, by simply inputting the group's name. The app will be pushed out by Google."

For teens, the phone is the social device. One teen shared, "I use my phone for all of my social networking. I don't use a computer or an iPad for that." Since the go-to spot for mobile social is the phone, not the tablet, this might be encouraging news for schools incorporating tablets into the learning environment.

"Often times, as the principal goes, so does the culture of the school.  This is not to say that individual teachers can not be leading the way within the school themselves, but this goes back to the notion of "pockets of innovation" as opposed to a "culture of innovation".  It is unlikely for an entire school to be "pushing the edge" if the principal or administrative team is not helping to pave the way for their community as they learn alongside of them."

"New high-tech standardized tests are coming soon to schools across the country, but will these new tests really revolutionize how we measure whether children are learning? The designers of the new tests, which a majority of states plan to adopt in two years, are allowing a sneak peek at sample questions."

"The MOOC Local option looks like the future to me. Where a school has a "coach" who helps students when they need it, who can be that connection and even connect students within a school. Think how this could change what it means to be a teacher….."

"To acquire and practice literacy skills today, students and educators in Oklahoma City Public Schools require access to Evernote, Google Docs, Gmail, Edmodo, Posterous, Celebrate Oklahoma Voices, and other educationally appropriate, interactive websites. All these websites are currently (as of February 9, 2012) blocked by OKCPS for student access. OKCPS must stop its "draconian" and unjustified Internet content filtering policies and adopt BALANCED policies. The district must TRUST teachers and empower them to directly bypass the content filter with their login credentials when it is professionally justified for instruction and learning."

Today is Banned Website Awareness Day, and all across the country, educators are doing their part to raise awareness of how overly restrictive blocking of educational websites affects student learning. The dialogue around filtering must also include bring-your-own-device policies, appropriate use of social media in schools, and overall responsible use of technology in school.

"Lately, I've become increasingly frustrated with our unwillingness to acknowledge these "elephants in the (class)room," if you will, because the new contexts for modern learning forged by the networked world in which we now live are creating an imperative for new ways of thinking about our work in schools. I've been collecting a list of these "things that we don't really want to talk about in education" in hopes that it might challenge us to bring those elephants out into the open and ignite some much needed conversation about how to deal with them. Here are nine of them:"

"The Teacher Challenge is made up of free professional learning challenges where educators are stepped through weekly tasks that increase their skills while being supported by mentors. The Challenge is open to any educator who wants to increase their skills."

"nd ten minutes after finding out that Zaption was closing up shop, I stumbled across Edpuzzle -- which offers the same feature set as Zaption -- the ability to create annotated video tutorials, the ability to ask students questions and automatically grade their answers, the ability to see how many times students watched a tutorial. Better yet, Edpuzzle offers seamless two-way integration with Google Classroom -- a Google Apps for Education product that has become the primary hub for all of the online work that I'm sharing with students on my learning team."

In a world increasingly awash in information, some schools in Calgary have essentially become "textbook-free," pushing away from what some see as an over regimented method of learning.

Jonathan Finkelstein, director of the BadgeStack Project, was recently featured in a video produced by the NYC Department of Education to help introduce educators to the impact of digital badges in K-12 classroom settings.

"When you combine IdeaPaint's ability turn any wall or surface into a canvas and Evernote's ability to capture, archive and make that surface searchable, the possibilities for turning any room into an interactive environment are endless. These two products come together in a particularly exciting way in a classroom environment, which can become a more creative and engaging place to learn."

"It is shame when teachers use excuses not to build their own networks. Too many times they say they can't or they don't have the time when they just don't want to. They are afraid to try something new. Until they give it a try, they won't see the value in it. I believe that when I try something new, I have to use it regularly for at least 2 weeks in order to make an honest decision about it. "

If you're looking for proof of how deeply the designers at Tinybop, the Brooklyn-based studio responsible for the gorgeous new kids anatomy app The Human Body, are in tune with the wants and needs of their users, all you have to do is listen to the on-screen avatar cut the cheese. "We don't just have one fart sound," founder Raul Gutierrez explains. "We have a whole library of farts in there!"