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<> Each one-hour program features classroom case studies and informative discussions. When you participate in the workshop in a group setting, you get the added benefits of peer interaction during pre- and post-viewing activities. The Learning Science Through Inquiry workshop provides a solid starting point to explore, discuss, and critique the inquiry approach - and ultimately put it to use in your own classroom.

Digital Citizenship isn't an expression often heard outside of school. The ways in which it's discussed in main stream media are quite different from how it's discussed in schools. Most often the popular press shares sensational negative stories how kids use the internet and their phones to hurt each other. We have to have open and honest conversations about how things can and have gone wrong and what we can do to make things better in the aftermath of things like cyber bullying, online harassment, or sexting. That said, it's a far more powerful message to talk to kids and parents about how engendering empathy helps us understand each other so we choose not to hurt each other. It's also important to share stories and ideas how our modern mobile technologies empower us to effect positive change in the world around us in ways that weren't possible 10 or 15 years ago. We have to move beyond stranger danger and scare tactics. Sharing frightening stories (often overstated) does nothing to model positive outcomes or move the conversation to discussions of how to deal with something gone wrong. Kids need more models of empathy and empowerment. Parents do too.

YouTube can be a good place to find educational videos to support your lessons. We've all had students who struggle to hold their comments until the video has stopped. One strategy that many teachers have used in those cases is to tell students to "write it down." The web makes it possible to take that strategy a step further and have students not only "write it down" but also enable teachers to instantly respond to students' comments while watching a video. Here are three tools that enable users to watch videos online and discuss them with others at the same time.

A free tool to set-up discussion and look at activity by user, by thread. 

Great tool for threaded discussions.

Discovery News' "Discovernator" - generates a series of interesting facts.  Just reload the page to see what crazy fact comes up next.  This would be great for generating discussions in science and social studies.  Mind the comments below the generator - as with all sites that allow commenting, there is little control over what people contribute.

maybe be photoshopped but some images could be good for opening discussions

lots of interesting discussion points...could be used for writing prompts

"Singapore Writers Festival 2013 School Programme 25 February - 9 March 2013 The Singapore Writers Festival is back and jumps right into the school year with Words Go Round 2013! One of the few literary festivals in the world that is multi-lingual, focusing on the official languages of Singapore - English, Malay, Chinese and Tamil - the Festival brings literary talents from Singapore and around the world to share with you their ideas, stories and lives. Back from another successful year, the Festival promises the same lively writers, stimulating discussions and exciting interactions."

5 hints of how to make twitter work for you 1) stick together and use hash tags 2)share everything 3) collaborate in real time 4) stay focused and 5) stay mobile all discussed with apps to make it happen

"In the Western understanding, students come to school with levels of innate intelligence and curiosity. Teachers try to further arouse that curiosity in specific subjects. There's a lot of active learning - going on field trips, building things. There's great emphasis on questioning authority, critical inquiry and sharing ideas in classroom discussion. In the Chinese understanding, there's less emphasis on innate curiosity or even on specific subject matter. Instead, the learning process itself is the crucial thing. The idea is to perfect the learning virtues in order to become, ultimately, a sage, which is equally a moral and intellectual state. These virtues include: sincerity (an authentic commitment to the task) as well as diligence, perseverance, concentration and respect for teachers. "

Great starter for discussion about use of electricity etc around the world. Also, beautiful, which is a bonus!

the very popular author of "The Fault in Our Stars" discusses the issues of copyright inherent in fan fiction, etc. - using the example of a Filipino teenager and a Norwegian teenager creating a poster about his book -- a 3 min clip that could be could to show students re creative remix

I'll go ahead and say it - I think the discussion on the iPad and Pedagogy needs to go further. Too many posts (and I am guilty of this too) focus on, "check out this cool app", or "did you know the iPad can do this"; you've all seen them. I really feel we are past the time where we should be looking at the functionality of the iPad as a device and be looking at it in a way which ensures we are looking more at how learning can be redefined and modified through the use of the iPad.

For five weeks in January-February, participants and ESOL experts can engage in collaborative, online discussion or hands-on virtual workshops of professional and scholarly benefit. These sessions will bring together participants for a longer period of time than is permitted by land-based professional development conventions and will allow a fuller development of ideas than is otherwise possible.   Sessions are free and open to anyone around the globe. Bring your colleagues!  

@klbeasley @jplaman Have you tried this with classes yet? Looks a good way to involve students in discussion http://t.co/1Hln1jQl GroupTweet enables 2 to 100,000+ contributors to tweet from the same account. No longer is the burden of content creation on one person's shoulders. Contributors' names can be hidden or displayed at the beginning or end of each Tweet. Whether you have a small group powering a company account or thousands of people powering a group account, you can leverage the power of the crowd with GroupTweet!

This looks like a viable way to broadcast to a common twitter account both from people who have Twitter already and those who do not. Looks viable for U13s too!

Minute of Listening is an exciting new creative learning initiative that promotes curious, engaged and reflective listening in the classroom.  Piloting in 70 primary schools around the UK from January to March 2012, Minute of Listening creates a daily opportunity for pupils and teachers to access and explore a huge range of music and sound as a stimulus for class discussion and imaginative enquiry.

A video for kids discussing life on earth looked at in numbers, e.g., how many of each species, the heaviest biomass by species, by individual organism, etc. A new series.

Maryanne Wolf, author of "Proust and the Squid", discusses deep reading. The page also shows links to other great articles related to the digital landscape. From the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard.

discusses the new version of Wolfram Alpha coming out -- Wolfram Alpha Pro 

Collaborative Inquiry through Philosophy for Children (P4C) - Cultivating thinking, questioning and discussion..  Presenters: Paul Southwell, Nick Martin and Nicole Jaggers, Radford College Canberra Questions: What does it mean to be educated?  s it more important to know or understand?  Is it more important to be knowledgeable or a thinker?