"Without some structure early on, an afterschool maker club can quickly turn into unorganized chaos.  Through a lot of trial and error, I found ways to set routines, norms and procedures that helped us to have more structure"

TED is another wonderful source of educational and inspirational videos to use in your class and for your professional development. A few days ago TED released its annual list of the most popular talks of the year featuring a number of interesting presentations covering different topics (e.g ). However, the list we have curated for you below goes beyond’s TED official collection to embed some wonderful talks directly relevant for us in education. We invite you to check it out below and as always share with us your feedback. Enjoy

Thanks to OnlineUniversities for this list of the Best Pinterest Boards in Educational Technology.

Blogs and Twitter aren’t the only social tools out there that can help you keep up with the latest and greatest developments in educational technology. Pinterest is rapidly becoming a favorite tool of educators all over the nation, and many have amassed some pretty great collections of edtech-related pins that teachers and students alike can use to explore new ways to learn, share, teach, and grow. While it would be nearly impossible to highlight every edtech pinboard out there, we’ve shared some of the boards we think stand out among the crowd here. Many are maintained by major educational websites, key figures in edtech, and well-known bloggers, but others were created by teachers just like you who simply want to share resources and tips with others in education.

The idea that students can learn something valuable from play isn’t new, or even controversial. A sizeable body of research has been conducted to back up what many teachers already knew to be true.  Fun and learning don’t have to be mutually exclusive, and it really works better for everyone involved when they’re not.

As such, making LEGO Bricks part of your lesson plan can help you teach concepts that students might otherwise find tedious, in a way that doesn’t feel like work to them. Many educators have already been putting this idea to the test with success. Here are a few ideas to get you started.

For those of us who want to record our gaming exploits, demo an app for the wider world to see, or email a tutorial to mom and dad through the wonder of video, it’s fortunate that recording screencasts is no longer the exclusive preserve of devs and serious coders. Whatever platform your smartphone (or tablet) runs, you can record on-screen activity without too much trouble.

Multisensory flashcards provide your brain with just that – multiple types of input! As a result, you easily connect new words and phrases with ones you already know.

A makerspace is a collaborative work space inside a school, library or separate public/private facility for making, learning, exploring and sharing that uses high tech to no tech tools.  These spaces are open to kids, adults, and entrepreneurs and have a variety of maker equipment including 3D printers, laser cutters, cnc machines, soldering irons and even sewing machines.  A makerspace however doesn’t need to include all of these machines or even any of them to be considered a makerspace.  If you have cardboard, legos and art supplies you’re in business.  It’s more of the maker mindset of creating something out of nothing and exploring your own interests that’s at the core of a makerspace.  These spaces are also helping to prepare those who need the critical 21st century skills in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).  They provide hands on learning, help with critical thinking skills and even boost self-confidence.  Some of the skills that are learned in a makerspace pertain to electronics, 3d printing, 3D modeling, coding, robotics and even woodworking,   Makerspaces are also fostering entrepreneurship and are being utilized as incubators and accelerators for business startups.  There have already been some amazing success stories that have come out of makerspaces to date.

Critical thinking  is a much needed skill especially in this era which is fraught with digital distractions and infomania. As a cognitive competence, critical thinking embraces several conceptual skills that include synthesizing, assessing, analyzing, applying and evaluating information. Critical thinking allows students to make informed  and rational decisions as it forces them to dive deeper and analyze things logically.  What would be viewed as a common sensical fact by ‘surface thinkers’ would be considered as a provocative statement that invite much reflection and investigation by critical thinkers. The purpose of today's post is to introduce you some a curated list of some of our favourite iPad apps you can use with your students and kids to boost their critical thinking skills. We have also created the poster below in case you want to use it in your class. Enjoy

To reduce the efforts of teachers in learning a new form of communication, we give you some of the most effective ways of using the most modern form of communication, Twitter.

For much of its history schooling has been obsessed with one type of intelligence as evidenced by what is given time within the learning day and that which is the focus of assessment. Indeed, pedagogy, curriculum and assessment within schools has delivered a clear and consistent message about what constitutes intelligence. Knowledge, defined as the recall of information, literacy, defined as the ability to read and write and numeracy, defined as the ability to calculate, have formed the pillars of educational systems and have both framed and been framed by our view of intelligence.

I make no apologies for making this an iPad focused post. So many of the schools that I work with have iPads both for students and for educators. The majority of the 30 Apps I’ve chosen are ones I have used extensively myself in the classroom with some new additions which I have seen being used by others to great success.