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Cleverly presented in a slideshow at the head of R. Byrne's blog. "On iPadApps4School.com you can sort app reviews according to grade level category. Simply click on the grade level category in the sidebar to find apps appropriate for the age of your students. You can find elementary school apps here, middle school apps here, and high school apps here. I also have a category for pre-K students. If you want to be notified when a new app is reviewed, you can subsc" Take a look at this great resource for mobile learning for a wide variety of levels/grades/ages.

"Many schools are currently using Forms as a way to easily and quickly record data from teacher observations. The advantage is of using a Google Form is that it compiles all the data into a spreadsheet which allows school leaders to quickly and easily see trends in the school's classrooms." Suggests that the administrator can also use the Google spreadsheet to collect data on what teachers are doing in the school as a whole. Video shows how to go to the Template and create your own by copying the document. Links to template, which has an auto-mail feature.

"This study aims at investigating the efficiency of web quests in enhancing the 8th graders' descriptive writing. The 8th graders in the Lebanese public schools in general usually demonstrate poor writing skills. Consequently, they don't show motivation to write in English. The subjects of the study are one control group (n=22) and one experimental group (n=23) enrolled in grade eight in a public school in Beirut and whose ages range from thirteen to fifteen years old. The purpose of the study is to examine whether or not the web quest helps 8th graders achieve unity and coherence in writing descriptive paragraphs and to examine if the motivation towards writing is increased after using the web quest. Based on a pilot study conducted earlier by the two researchers, the prospective findings of the study shall convey that the experimental group produces unified and coherent writings. More importantly, the experimental group is expected to reveal great motivation towards writing. The researchers' prospective recommendations will be mainly urging the teachers of all levels to use the web quests as an indispensable tool requested to enhance students' motivation and to better their descriptive writing skills."

"Discover, purchase, and share educational apps, books, and videos easily with Google Play for Education - a new online destination just for schools." Browse content by grade, subject, or standard; purchase with school PO (no credit card required); distribute apps via cloud. This page also shows how to set up tables to allow use of content and to find approved apps.

Top Web 2.0 Tools for Learning for the New School Year

Key findings: ICT use by pupils and teachers in the case study schools led to positive motivational\noutcomes, supporting a focus upon learning and the tackling of learning tasks.\n* Positive motivational outcomes were most frequently found when ICT was used to\nsupport engagement, research, writing and editing, and presentation of work. Where ICT\nuses supported internal cognitive aspects of learning, for example in the case of secondary\ndesign and technology, there were indicators that the motivation arising from the use of\nICT was linked to enhancements in some subject specific attainment.\n* More positive motivation resulted when ICT use was focused on both teaching and\nlearning, than when ICT was used to support teaching alone.\n* Boys and girls were both motivated by uses of ICT. There was evidence that motivation\nfrom ICT use positively affected the work patterns of boys so that they worked in similar\nways to the persistent pattern of girls.\n* Motivation appeared to be independent of ethnic background, but socio-economic\nbackground impacted on occasions in terms of limited access or out of school support.\n* There were indications that ICT impacted positively upon

A social blog oriented to middle-school learners. Teacher can set questions and request students to join. Free. Nice instructional video at the >Learn more about link. There are also many teacher/school district blogs to view as examples.

Nine Reasons to Twitter in Schools

E-learning and Web 2.0 tools for schools Mindmap by category (blogging, collaboration, audio, etc)

This page holds a list of essential sites for teaching computer science and coding to high school students. Spark interest by having students create their own games and apps while learning math.

"If you're the "techy" person in your school but you're not in the IT department sometimes your colleagues come to you with their tech help questions before heading to the IT folks. Sometimes those questions come over the phone and you find yourself trying to explain where to click next or struggling to understand the problem the other person is trying to explain. That's when it's handy to have a screen sharing tool readily available. Here are five that are quick and easy to use." Actually, these screen-sharing tools might be really great for seeing what your students are doing, or to allow remote collaborations.

"VLC is a free and open source cross-platform multimedia player and framework that plays most multimedia files as well as DVD, Audio CD, VCD, and various streaming protocols." From R. Davis and R. Wilson: "One of the best features is that there is a portable apps version that you can load onto a thumb drive, and thus you can play streaming media files in locations where you do not have administrative permission or rights to download the VLC player or other applications to computers at work or school." For Windows-based PCs.

This brief article by Tom Robb outlines a great new Moodle application that is free if your school already uses Moodle, or accessible online where you can have your own page for quiz access. The add-on offers a short quiz of 10 randomized questions for almost 2,000 commonly read books used for extensive reading programs with the major graded reader series. See the http://MoodleReader.org site.

Great resources for planned and executing project-based learning in your school: "According to Edutopia, studies have shown that students who use project-based learning remember the material much longer and have healthier attitudes toward education. "Project-based learning is based on the idea that students learn best by tackling and solving real world problems. Students are much more engaged with the subject matter and look to the teacher as more of a coach who guides them through their own reflections and ideas. Project-based learning often involves students working in pairs or groups, thus facilitating a deeper understanding of cooperation and communication in solving problems."

This article goes a long way to debunk the myths perpetrated by Gardner and the brain-based learning movement. Once again, Schools of Education have fallen for the mythical. "So let's reiterate: A "learning style" curriculum won't affect the way you learn. You don't only use half of your brain, so being taught to your "left-brain" or "right-brain" won't help you, either. Fiddling with an iPhone app? Unlikely. "What might affect how you learn? The types of things you've learned before. "It's not so much based upon how the brain is structured," Alferink says, "it's based upon our experiences." So if you're not a very strong reader, for example, you probably won't learn very well by reading. "Our experiences do affect brain development," he says. "The wiring of the brain depends upon the experiences we have." "And as for the validity of "brain-based" education techniques - that term should really apply to all teaching. After all, Alferink says, "all education is brain-based. It is impossible to learn without a brain.""

Looks like it might be a nice, free place to create a media rich portfolio. Probably more oriented to high school-adult, given the professional look.

ePals is the leading provider of safe collaborative technology for schools to connect and learn in a protected, project-based learning networ