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"A digital fluency subject to teach students the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary for the digital age is needed, writes Gerald White. "

"CS Unplugged is a collection of free learning activities that teach Computer Science through engaging games and puzzles that use cards, string, crayons and lots of running around. The activities introduce students to underlying concepts such as binary numbers, algorithms and data compression, separated from the distractions and technical details we usually see with computers."

As part of its continued focus on optimising technology in schools, the Victorian Government, with support from Apple, is examining how iPads can be best used in schools. In a classroom with 1-to-1 devices such as the iPad, contemporary ways of learning can be optimised. ICT-rich learning and teaching opportunities can increase student participation, engagement and achievement.

"Free Software for Schools is a catalogue of open source computer programs for teaching and learning. The catalog is organised by the following categories, and contains an index that lists the name of each program listed."

Good catalgue of educational software, much of it free to download and share.

"We've been stalking people in english class. Wanting to teach the kids in my class about concepts of digital footprint and online safety, I used three people well known from the edusphere as examples: Will Richardson, Jabiz Raisdana and Jeff Utecht. I introduced these three friends to the students in my class by giving them only a photo and a name. I simply told the kids in my class: find out all you can about these three guys." Clarence Fisher's great project on looking at digital footprints.

This week our Year 4 team visited the RM REAL centre to look at how we might realise our ideas on learning spaces with the purchase of some new flexible furniture. Before we went I realised that whilst our teaching team have put considerable thought into how we might transform our learning spaces, we had not yet consulted the children.

"This course will introduce users the Ultranet, the new Victorian Education Department initiative for 21st Century Learning. What is it, how does it work, how will teaching change, where should I start? "

"This plea doesn't apply to the teachers (or administrators, for that matter) who have figured out that Wikipedia is an incredible knowledge store, cornucopia of primary sources, and go-to site for most the free world. Rather, this plea is for those who, instead of teaching students about Internet site credibility, fact checking, verification, and crowdsourcing, choose to simply prohibit the use of Wikipedia."

Interesting blog post that explains the sillyness behind filtering Wikipedia from students doing classroom research.

"Scratch is often cited as one of the best introductory languages for teaching kids - or anyone, really - to code. So it's no surprise that a Rutgers University honors class called "Programming for the Masses" would utilize Scratch as part of its goal of making programming a more accessible, everyday skill. What is unique - and if I may say so, pretty fun - is the direction that a research project, an outgrowth of the class, has taken since. The project is called Scratchable Devices, and with it, computer science Professor Michael Littman and some of his students are working to make it easy for anyone to program their household devices by using Scratch."

"Transforming Assessment is an Australian Learning and Teaching Council Fellowship project looking at the use of e-assessment within web 2.0 and virtual world online learning environments in Higher Education. Enquires relating to this project: Professor Geoffrey Crisp, University of Adelaide. Technical enquires relating to this channel: Dr Mathew Hillier, University of Adelaide. "

"Tablet computing and personal electronic devices such as iPads promise to have a dramatic impact on education. This Ning network was created to explore new and innovative ways iPads and other portable devices could be used in schools and colleges."

"There are many teacher contributed resources which you can search in a number of ways: keyword, popular resources, new resources, cloud tag, or category. Members may wish to share a resource by clicking on the "add a resource button" and filling the details. You may also help others with their selection by commenting on the value of the resource to your teaching and learning. Members must be logged in to access resources."

VITTA eKnowledge resource portal

"ICTEV's 2011 conference aims to put you in touch with educational colleagues who will enthuse and inspire you to integrate technologies in your learning and teaching. The technologies you will hear about and explore on the day will allow you and your students to be in touch with other educational communities (schools and professionals) across the world."

Melbourne ICT event for educators in May 2011.

"Scratch takes all of the essential programming constructs like sequencing, conditional branching, control structures, data manipulations, etc, and wraps them in a very friendly, very easy to use environment that even the youngest students can use with just a little knowledge.  It's quite intuitive to learn and you can do simple things fairly easily, yet there is really no limit as to how far you take it."  

"So I'd like to get more specific about what I think is wrong about the Khan Academy approach by writing about things I see as wrong with the way we teach math in the US. No matter if we agree or not about Khan Academy, I'm fairly certain we can agree math learning is not going as well as we'd like (to say the least.) Too many people are convinced by the system that they "hate math", and even students who do well (meaning, can get decent test scores) are often just regurgitating stuff for the test, knowing they can safely forget it shortly afterward."