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Eleventh-grade English teacher, Lee Ann Spillane, describes how she uses Wordle to explore and analyze text patterns used by F. Scott Fitzgerald. How frequently does a word appear in the text? Students sit in table groups, with one computer per table. Using Google Books, students do a simple word search, creating a digital concordance.

University students create videos for younger, k12 students to help inspire future computer science students. This is two fold. The process of creating the video also reinforces topics mastered while benefiting society.

This is amazing on so many levels. Thanks for sharing. For us- great teaching resources, but also a great learning tool for the MIT students.

Over the past two years, Forsyth County Schools in Cumming, Ga., has slowly allowed some of its 34,000 students to bring their own notebooks, iPhones or other computing tools to school and connect them to the district network. By allowing students to bring these devices into school they are allowing students to be creative in the classroom by giving the opportunity. So many districts have students "shut down" when they come into the building, and using mobile devices is what students know best, we need to embrace their knowledge, creativity and abilities in the classroom.

I have used this type of program at Springfield College and it helped a great deal in not only monitoring students but knowing who needed help.

This is an exciting article about a project that encourages young people into STEM careers through weekend and summer courses in computer game design. The program uses mentoring and collaboration to teach Game Design.

For STEM education, this is an exciting opportunity for students. I have had a couple student go after game design careers and have been successful. I was interested to read about the support that is built into the program (mentors) and the collaboration to help teach design. My former students have told me that is how they like to learn the design is through collaboration with fellow students in the class they are in.

Textbooks, encyclopedias and newspapers are educational resources of the past. Today, students seek answers from the sky -- specifically, the clouds. A new way of using the Internet is making data limitless. It's called "cloud computing," and it's allowing educational institutions, businesses and individuals to keep more information at their fingertips than is possible with even a room full of computers.

Chartle is an awesome site that allows students and teachers the ability to create dynamic and graphic charts based upon data collected in the classroom. This site is extremely easy to use and can be easily used across most grade levels. Click the link to view a short tutorial and example of what Chartle is.

An overview commentary on the use of EPortfolios for teachers and students. The article addresses what and how to use electronic portfolios and addresses how one should go about setting one up and how to assess the contents. One point not addressed but one I encountered in another technology class I took was what happens when the computers or programs are incompatible between the teacher and the student (using a mac versus a pc for instance). Very interesting.

Aviary is a powerful suite of graphics and audio tools that can be used for educational purposes and assignments. It is a very dynamic piece of software that is hosted in the cloud and is an excellent web 2.0 tool. Click here to read more about using Aviary in the Classroom.

Love this app. The opportunities for creativity are only limited by the user's imagination. A great way to introduce students to graphics and image editing.

This article, written by EDUDEMIC author, Jeff Dunn, offers 5 distinct reasons why schools need to move toward Digital Textbooks/ebooks as opposed to traditional paper books/texts. He begins by adding support to his stance by citing Ed Secretary, Arne Duncan's call to make "textbooks obsolete". Among Dunn's reasons and pertinent to our Media/Inform Literacy discussion are these ideas: Using digital texbooks or ebooks on line, allows for students to interact with the book. Some books have videos, highlighting/notetaking features, moveable models and interactive diagrams. In addition, such technological books are more immediate-they are simply accessed by the press of a button. Arne Duncan also remarked that the US is lagging behind other countries in converting to these computerized books. With states desiring a lead position in education in the US, and Obama's push (Connect Ed) campaign to have all schools connected (internet/computer/tech), this transition to Digital Text/ebooks seems a likely probability-and exciting one too. Though sitting back, especially in a beach chair, with a paper book still holds an appeal for me.

If we have a computer, we have a wealth of free tools and free education at our fingertips that we as teachers can use and that our students can use.

I really enjoyed this article because it addresses the practical application of technology in the classroom and how, as a teacher, we can maximize student time when using Web 2.0

Nice tips to keep the computer lab time as efficient as possible.

This article talks about ways teachers are trying to incorporate cell phone usage in class in a positive way. There are some great examples in this article--

I have tried a couple times having students use the phones they have for research in class to supplement the computers we have available.