There are tons of productivity apps out there and below I list five essential tools and apps for educators. I could have chosen more but the ones that I selected I believe cover most of time-consuming tasks teachers are responsible for or provide innovative opportunities to enrich learning. Some of the tools may be iOS only but put them on your waitlist as I am sure they will head to other mobile devices or Android iOS devices. Kidblog (or any other blogging platform with student blogs/accounts) - Kidblog is a great platform for student blogging. There is a great deal that you can do with blogging like having students explain a math word problem, respond to a question involving classroom content like a novel study, and any number of tasks. Kidblog has no ads, is free and requires no student email addresses if using with younger students. There is a great deal gained when students have authentic opportunities to read, write and respond to a large audience on the Internet. Research shows when students write for an audience larger than their peer group, achievement and performance significantly increases and Kidblog can be a contributing factor to student success in any content area or grade level. For older students, I would use Weebly, Edublogs or WordPress but regardless a blogging platform is paramount to student success. Twitter - Twitter is a great tool for professional development. Many educators don’t see the value of using Twitter until they jump in and start using it. Once used, it is a go to resource to connect and collaborate with others. When I need a topic for a blog post, answers to questions, or want to find a guest expert for a project, Twitter is where I go. Nearpod - Nearpod is PowerPoint on steroids. It is a free app that students download and follow along using a slidedeck. With Nearpod, you can add in videos, poll questions, quizzes, audio clips, etc. and the app makes sure students follow along. They get more out of the content since it is interactive and you receive quality feedback about your students understanding using the teacher’s app. They added some new features and this is one I definitely recommend that teachers add to their tech toolbox. Remind (formerly Remind 101) - is a service to send announcements to a group of students, parents or colleagues. They recently changed their name to just remind which is essentially the epitome of the purpose of the app. Students join the class group and all phone numbers are kept confidential and safe. It is a one way messaging service but if you needed students to be able to respond you could use Cel.ly. Lisa Nielsen of the Innovative Educator blog just wrote a blog post on how to use Cel.ly to serve as a bullying/cyberbullying reporting app to keep kids safe and reportings confidential. Quick Key Mobile - I recently wrote a blog post describing this great app but basically you take a snapshot of a bubble sheet of student answers and the app grades the assignment/assessment and sends the scores to your gradebook program. If you want more detailed information, please see this blog post I wrote: http://wp.me/p39xZQ-1ay      

This report, funded by a grant from The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation with additional support from Pearson, examines the attitudes, opinions, and use of Open Educational Resources (OER) among teaching faculty in U.S. higher education. Some of the key findings: Faculty are not very aware of open educational resources. Depending on the strictness of the awareness measure, between two-thirds and three-quarters of all faculty classify themselves as unaware on OER. Faculty appreciate the concepts of OER. When presented with the concept of OER, most faculty say that they are willing to give it a try. Awareness of OER is not a requirement for adoption of OER. More faculty are using OER than report that they were aware of the term OER. Resource adoption decisions are often made without any awareness of the specific licensing of the material, or its OER status. Faculty judge the quality of OER to be roughly equivalent to that of traditional educational resources. Among faculty who do offer an opinion, three-quarters rank OER quality as the same as or better than traditional resources. The most significant barrier to wider adoption of OER remains a faculty perception of the time and effort required to find and evaluate it. The top three cited barriers among faculty members for OER adoption all concern the discovery and evalua- tion of OER materials. Faculty are the key decision makers for OER adoption. Faculty are almost always involved in an adoption decision and — except for rare instances — have the primary role. The only exceptions are in a minority of two-year and for-profit institutions, where the administration takes the lead. The report is available for download: PDF version: Opening the Curriculum: Open Education Resources in U.S. Higher Education, 2014 (pdf) e-Book version for Kindle (.mobi format): Opening the Curriculum (.mobi) e-Book version for iPad or Nook (.epub format): Opening the Curriculum (.epub) Infographic: Opening the Curriculum Infographic Opening the Curriculum: Open Educational Resources in U.S. Higher Education, 2014 is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. A listing of all conducted studies by the Babson Survey Research Group is available here.

jQuery is one of the best ways to add functionality to websites in dynamic ways. Counters, timers, calendars, sliders and more are all available with jQuery. One of the great things about jQuery is the number of plugins available thanks to the vibrant community, and the ease with which they can be integrated with your project. In this post, I’ve gathered up several jQuery date, time and calendar plugins for your projects: Bootstrap Date Paginator jQM Datebox CLNDR.js pickadate.js Filthypillow PickMeUp Clockpicker Flat DateTime Picker jQuery Mobile Date Timepicker Related Posts The Most Useful jQuery Scrolling Plugins Useful jQuery Menu Plugins and Scripts Awesome New CSS3 Tutorials to Try Out Creative Examples of Animated Web Design Love is in the Logo: 10 Inspiring Examples

In my recent post about 5 essential tools, I mistakenly left out Evernote. I use Evernote on every device I have including my laptop so I have complete access to files, student work, emails, pictures or memos. Evernote is ubiquitous and is one of those tools that is paramount when you work on several devices. You can also have your students use Evernote and set up folders for you and your student to share or a group of students to collaborate on together in class. The only drawback is that unlike Google docs where students collaborate at the same time, Evernote doesn’t have that feature. Hopefully it is added in the future. And using Google docs or Google Apps for Education is a another given - even if for just personal use and your students aren’t using Google apps. You can collaborate on projects or lesson plans with your colleagues. What other apps would you recommend to a new teacher for productivity?

Courtesy Affordable Online Colleges

Today we got a new set of Vintage Book Textures sourced from early 20th century books. These are perfect for adding a vintage feel to your designs. Hopefully you can find some great uses for them. Enjoy! Download all textures as ZIP from copy.com (23.6Mb) Did you like these textures? Let us know by leaving a comment, and you can even post a link if you used them in your artwork. Related Posts Free Texture Friday - Vintage Paper 9 Free Texture Friday - Vintage Book 2 Free Texture Friday - Vintage Stone Wall 2 Free Texture Friday - Vintage Book Textures Free Texture Friday - Grunge Screens

Bicycles are some of the most common transportation vehicles on Earth, and in many regions, they are the primary form of travel over short to intermediate distances. Bicycles, also known as cycles or bikes, are vehicles that are powered by the human rider using their legs to push pedals, and as such, they do not require an additional fuel source or engine. Bikes are also popular recreational vehicles for fun or exercise, and because of their importance worldwide, they’re prominently featured in photographs: Bicycle Rack by Theen Moy Bicycles by Bror Johansson Kyoto Bicycle Rack by Eric Bicycle Parking by Roevin Bicycles by LunaticMarine Bicycle Love by Jamie Frith bicycles by Lilith5422 Bicycle by Aline Bicycle Parking by Drpavloff Orange bikes by Nina’s clicks Bicycle by designerskyline311 Pink Bicycle by Sinus Iridium Bicycles by Andy Kennelly bicycles love Vienna by someonelovely bicycles by AlexNadal Buy My Flowers by Marco Sarli East Side at Gage by Michael W Hrysko Photography Bicycles V by FakE-LoL hitload of bicycles by NekoNARCOTIC City Cycles by Patrick Harms Bicycle by Bertl Bicycles by Christina Gonzalez Old Electric Bicycle by PhotoMB Bicycles by Julie Durieux <pBicycle Alley by Jeff Kroll Bikes by James Wu Bicycle Love by Jamie Firth bicycles by Alexey Melnikov The blue bicycle by Nehsa Bicycle by Ilaria Luciani Related Posts 30 Marvelous Underwater Photographs 30 Majestic Photographs of Horses 30 Really Cool Tilt Shift Photographs Out of this World Starry Photographs Duck Photography

Recently I have seen a lot of blog posts discussing the removal of mobile devices or 1:1 programs from the classroom as it is becoming a distraction and teachers are relying on the hardware to teach instead of teaching the content in a conceptual, hands-on way for students. While I agree teaching national standards or CCSS is important, as well as test preparation, I also believe teaching students to use digital media within the context of a global project or assignment is just as important. Not all students are adept at using the computer for research or synthesizing information on in-depth projects. While this is true that not all students are efficient and skilled computer users, I don’t think technology should be removed from the classroom at all. In fact, I think trained teachers should increase the use of technology to further learning and motivate students to be actively engaged in the learning process. Steve Jobs didn’t let his children use the iPad. When asked how his kids liked using the iPad, he said the amount of time his children used technology was limited. Blogger Sarah Lesnar shared the following regarding the limited use of technology with children, There is a quote that was highlighted in The Times by Chris Anderson, CEO of 3D Robotics and a father of five. He explains what drives those who work in tech to keep it from their kids. "My kids accuse me and my wife of being fascists and overly concerned about tech, and they say that none of their friends have the same rules…  That’s because we have seen the dangers of technology firsthand. I’ve seen it in myself, I don’t want to see that happen to my kids." Many people have noticed and made comments that children don’t play outside and aren’t as social in person like we were when we were kids. Over time technology evolved and we did have some technology to occupy our time and learn with but for the most part our entertainment came from socializing in person. As did our learning. Our learning was hands-on, allowing students of all abilities to conceptualize content to develop strong foundations for learning. Again, I wholly support hands-on learning and helping students conceptualize complex content areas or algorithms but technology should be a tool to facilitate the learning when possible in my opinion. Clay Shirky is one educator that bans all laptops from the classroom. He feels that it is a distraction and hard to compete with the challenge of keeping students focused and motivated on the content presented with all of the distractions having laptops presents holds during a lecture. But is a lecture or discussion the best way to engage large classes and present content? Clay Shirky’s thinking is along the lines of the research presented in "Brain Rules" about multi-tasking.  John Medina, best-selling author or Brain Rules, does not believe we can effectively pay attention to multiple tasks at one simultaneous time. Medina shares that our brains can focus on one thing only and multi-tasking is a myth. Instead, our brains switch back and forth from each task and pays attention to several items individually not simultaneously. Other educators are following suit as Clay Shirky. Effective teachers use technology in the classroom and its use is paramount to student success and academic performance. I couldn’t imaging teaching without technology. Lisa Nielsen, The Innovative Educator, shared the following in a recent blog post, Clay Shirky author and professor of media studies at New York University, recently penned a guest article for the Washington Post sharing why he decided to ban technology in his class.  He explains how it was challenging to be more interesting than the devices. The following quote captures some of his thinking: "The practical effects of my decision to allow technology use in class grew worse over time. The level of distraction in my classes seemed to grow, even though it was the same professor and largely the same set of topics, taught to a group of students selected using roughly the same criteria every year. The change seemed to correlate more with the rising ubiquity and utility of the devices themselves, rather than any change in me, the students, or the rest of the classroom encounter." While I can understand the feelings of Clay Shirky, I personally tend to lean to the side of Lisa Nielsen. Lisa contends that the students that just ‘sit and get’ information from lectures don’t experience true learning. In my opinion, students need interaction, to experience simulations and learn from one another by collaborating on authentic, real world challenges that they might experience in a job or career setting after high school or college. Career readiness skills are paramount to preparing students for success as an adult in the workforce and the use of technology tools is one of those career readiness skills. Using technology in the classroom is so important to me it is the reason that I sought national board certification in the area of technology education. Playing outside is important but so is playing games to learn content in the classroom. But that leads into a whole different conversation about gamification, which has become near and dear to my heart since I finished my book on gamification (shameless plug), that I will save for another day. What are your thoughts on using technology in the classroom with students? Agree or disagree? Please leave a comment and let’s discuss this and make connections during Connected Educator month!

This month, October 2014, is Connected Educator month. There are dozens of events online and offline to help celebrate Connected Educator month and help educators connect to create a supportive personal learning network (PLN). It is important for educators to collaborate as the demands have increased and collaborating with other educators allows educators to bounce ideas off of each other, share innovative learning activities and work together to improve student achievement. At the Connected Educator month website, there is a calendar of events of all kinds of things going on this month in honor of Connected Educator month. Take a moment to check out the comprehensive list and join in the fun this month - hope to connect with you online this year!  

It seems clear that HDR photography is here to stay in the world of photographic techniques. While it initially received a lot of criticism, particularly due to overprocessed images, most photographers are now implementing at least some of the HDR techniques into their photographs. HDR, or high dynamic range photography, uses blended exposures to bring a wider range of exposures into a photograph than were originally in the picture. Whether used a little, or a lot, HDR can lead to spectacular results, and here are some tutorials that show how: HDR Tutorial - HDR How To Guide by Alik Griffin Trey Ratcliffe’s HDR Tutorial Colin’s HDR Photography Tutorial Creating an HDR-like Image From a Single RAW File in Lightroom by Post Production Pye HDR Tutorial Using Photomatix and Photoshop HDR Interior Photography Tutorial HDR Photography Tutorial by Nasim Mansurov Photography Tutorial by Elia Locardi HDR Tutorial - How to create HDR photos by Miroslav Petraskoi HDR Tutorial Related Posts 10 Fun Photoshop Tutorials from 2014 HDR Photography - Examples and tutorials 10 Fun Photoshop Text Effect Tutorials Great Photoshop Art & Design Tutorials 10 Beautiful Examples of Makeup Packaging Design

Inside Higher Ed’s third annual survey of college and university faculty members and campus leaders in educational technology aims to understand how these groups perceive and practice online learning and other emerging opportunities for delivering course content. Some of the questions addressed in the study are: Can online courses achieve learning outcomes that are equivalent to in- person courses? What are the most important quality indicators of an online education? How does the quality of online courses compare with the quality of in- person courses? To what extent have faculty members and technology administrators experienced online learning themselves, as students? To what extent have faculty taught online, hybrid, and face-to-face courses? For those who have not taught online, why is that? How supportive are institutions of online learning? Which should cost the student more — online degree programs or those delivered face to face? Who should be responsible for creating and marketing online degree programs? Are institutions expanding online learning? Should they do so? To what extent do faculty feel that they are appropriately consulted in this decision- making process? How do faculty use learning management systems (LMS) and early warning systems? Snapshot of Findings Few faculty members (9 percent) strongly agree that online courses can achieve student learning outcomes that are at least equivalent to those of in- person courses. Academic technology administrators are more likely (36 percent) to strongly agree with this statement. Asked to rate the importance of factors reflecting quality in online education, faculty members and academic technology administrators alike say it is "very important" that an online course or program "provides meaningful interaction between students and instructors" (80 percent for faculty, 89 percent for administrators), "is offered by an accredited institution" (76 vs. 84 percent), "has been independently certified for quality" (66 vs. 52 percent), and "leads to academic credit" (50 vs. 68 percent). While a larger proportion of technology officers than faculty members say online courses are of better quality than in-person courses in a set of eight areas, in neither group did any of the eight areas garner a majority reporting this view. But faculty members thought online courses could be at least as good as in-person during class and 77 percent of faculty say the same about the ability to reach "at-risk" students. Very few faculty members (7 percent) believe the tuition for online courses should be higher than for face-to-face degree programs. A much smaller proportion of faculty who have taught online courses believe online courses should have a lower tuition than face- to-face programs (20 percent), while nearly half of their peers who have never taught an online course (48 percent) believe that this should be the case. More technology administrators (53 percent) than faculty members (32 percent) have taken an online course for credit. Nearly half of those who have taught an online course (49 percent) have also taken an online course as a student, compared to less than a quarter (23 percent) of those who have never taught an online course. About one in three professors say they have taught an online course, with some variation across position type. Among those who have never taught an online course, the three main reasons they give are never having been asked, not being interested, and not believing that online classes have educational value. More than 8 in 10 instructors say they have converted a face-to-face course to a hybrid course. The majority report that this conversion decreased face-to-face time. Half (51 percent) of faculty believe improving the educational experience for students by introducing more active learning in the course is a very important reason for converting face-to-face courses to blended or hybrid courses. Nearly three-quarters of faculty believe that professors own the online course content and material they create. Less than half of faculty and technology administrators strongly agree that their institution offer instructors strong support for online learning, as measured by eight indicators. Nearly all professors (96 percent) agree that institutions should produce their own online degree programs and be responsible for marketing them (85 percent). About one-third of faculty strongly agree that their institution is planning to expand online course offerings, though only about one-sixth strongly agree that their institution should do so. A larger proportion of those who have taught an online course than their peers who have never done so strongly agree to the above two statements. Most faculty do not feel that they have been appropriately involved with decision making surrounding the expansion of online course offerings. A small fraction of faculty believe that spending on IT infrastructure (8 percent) and digital initiatives (7 percent) is too high. Faculty are split on whether spending in these areas are too low or just about right. The majority of faculty always use learning management systems (LMS) to share syllabus information with students (78 percent), record grades (58 percent), and communicate with students (52 percent). Only 20 percent of faculty members always use the LMS for lecture capture. Only 15 percent of faculty strongly agree that digital humanities has improved their teaching, 14 percent strongly agree that it has improved their institution, and 23 percent strongly agree that digital humanities has improved their research. The vast majority of faculty (89 percent) say their institution uses an early warning system, and 81 percent believe that those warning systems help students make significant learning gains. The full report can be downloaded here.

World Teacher’s Day is coming up on Monday, October 5, 2014. Educators around the globe should be celebrated and appreciated for their dedication to education. I received an email asking everyone to get involved to help promote education for all students around the world. You can play a role in advancing the global cause of the teaching profession on World Teachers’ Day. On October 5, tell the United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, that you support quality education for all and the global campaign to get all children into school. You can send your message by clicking here:  http://www.5oct.org/2014/. Do what you can and celebrate world teacher’s day by doing something special or kind for your children’s teacher(s) or your colleagues. Hopefully admins will follow suit with their faculty and staff across the globe.

Hey guys, today I’m sharing with you a set of black leather textures. I’m pretty sure you will find good use for them. As before, you are free to use them for both personal and commercial projects. Enjoy! Download all textures as ZIP from copy.com (43.4Mb) Did you like these textures? Let us know by leaving a comment, and you can even post a link if you used them in your artwork. Related Posts Free Texture Friday - Abstract Grunge 4 Free Texture Friday - Crystallized Silica Free Texture Friday - Vintage Stone Wall 2 Free Texture Friday - Grunge Metal 2 Free Texture Friday - Grunge Screens

Since the open discussion at BbWorld where NIU shared that we’ve been working on some system tweaks as well as a custom building block for providing an alternative reporting format for Bb enterprise surveys and course evaluations, we’ve conducted a very small pilot of the tool this summer and continued efforts on an initial draft of a building block that provides an alternate report format. For those interested in learning more about our efforts, I recorded this screencast demo of the functionality at this point that I can share with those who would like to see the building block deployed within our dev environment. I tried to avoid as much technical-specifics as possible and rather just show the workflows and functionality tweaks that we’ve envisioned. A decision still hasn’t been made institutionally whether we will continue to pursue a wider pilot of the tool with additional building block enhancements to be requested, or look at other 3rd party tools. For follow-up on any additional technical details about the tweaks and building block depicted, please contact Ruperto Herrera (rherrera@niu.edu) and Matt Kacskos (mkacskos1@niu.edu) who have done all the technical development work.

This Tuesday, October 7, 2014 has been designated as Connected Librarian Day as part of the many Connected Educators Month events and will serve as a Library 2.014 pre-conference event hosted by Steve Hargadon and other online conference volunteers. This is an open, online, and free event sponsored by Follett and The Center for International Scholarship in School Libraries (CISSL) at Rutgers.  Join us for special presentations by: Heidi Neltner on "Your Stakeholder Connected Librarian Toolkit," Judy O’Connell on "Leadership in a connected age: change, challenge and productive chaos," Michelle Luhtala on "Flipped Learning and the Essential Tools to Get you There," Patrice Bryan & Darcy Coffta on "Schools’ Vortex: Innovative Library Makerspaces," Matthew Winner & Sherry Gick on "When Sherry Met Matthew: Finding Your Educational Soulmate and Helping Kids to Rule the World," Jennifer LaGarde on "Imagining Library Spaces of the Future, Today," Special opening and closing sessions with Britten Follett, Ross Todd, Shannon Miller, and our preconference co-chair, Joyce Valenza. Check out http://connectedlibrarians.com/ for more information, and be sure to share with the librarians in your schools! You can use #cld14 to share your excitement about this event with your followers, and share or embed the Connected Librarian Day Flyer on your website or social media channels.   There is a fantastic line up of speakers set for Connected Librarian Day this Tuesday. The schedule can be found here and on that page is a time and date converter to make sure you view the schedule in your time zone. Hope to see you online and happy Connected Librarian Day!

As the number of online degrees have proliferated in recent years, it is even more important for institutions to take a more thoughtful approach to program selection. Often, a university must consider key issues like course offerings and schedules, degree specialization, and admissions requirements in order to offer a competitive online degree. In this webinar offered 11/12/2014, academic leaders from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Ohio University discussed the key market forces that are present today, and how universities can best position their prospective degrees in the market. Panelists provided practical insights and recommendations on how to handle the change management for a university to offer competitive degree programs. The participants in this webinar learned about: How to effectively plan for the online marketplace, validate program expansion, and reduce risk How to influence change across the institution to prepare to take degrees online Key considerations when evaluating online program management services More details and a copy of the webinar slides, are available here.

Flowers, or blossoms, are features on plants that help with reproduction. They are frequently very pretty and colorful, so as to attract animals to help with transferring pollen. Flowers have long been admired for their beauty, and are commonly given at events such as weddings, Valentine’s Day, and other celebrations. Flowers are great for photography because of their bright vibrant colors and delicate structures: Flowersby drag0nflyawayh0me The beauty of Spring by Lazy Vlad The Daisies by Riyasat Azim Spring Blooms by Lijah Hanley Pink flowers in the autumn sun by Anastasiya Yudina flowersby rashell-stocks The cat and the daisies by David Nilsson Pyrethrum after the rain by Sergey Kohl flowes and skyby san29 Mayleen by Jacky Parker Lovers by Simran Sangha Roses by chn The comet by Andrey Morozov colourful flower drop by dini25 Orchid by Simran Sangha Apple Blossom by Ralf Stelander Raindrops On Daisies by Keith G.Hawley Peach-coloured flowers by Sashi94 The Rule of Blue by Carlton Belton colors of summer by Anna lonely flower and bokeh by Samet BIÇAKÇI macro fleur by CD photographie Remains of the Day by Dawn flower by Christophe Brutel Chamomilla by Danas Toman Field of sunflowers by Igor Goncharenko Autumn’s light by Martineb All lined up by Andy perry Summer colours by Abinav Chaudry the last ones before winter by Anna Cseresnjes Related Posts 30 Lovely Flower Photographs Bright and Sunny Photography Rocks, Stones and Pebbles in Photography 30 Marvelous Underwater Photographs 30 Photographs of Bicycles

The Library 2.014 will be October 8-9, 2014 this week and jam-packed of great sessions for librarians and educators of all content areas. According to the Learning Revolution description of the free, virtual conference, We have an amazing group of Keynote & Distinguished Speakers lined up for the Library 2.014 virtual conference, October 8th + 9th. View the conference schedule in your local time and mark your calendars for keynote speakers Samantha Adams Becker on "On the Horizon: Pressing Technologies, Trends, Challenges for Libraries," Phil Bradley the UK Search Guru, Jonathan Hernández on "Internet censorship, privacy and freedom of expression: new challenges for LIS professionals," Dr. Sandra Hirsh on "Working in a Global Environment - Success Strategies for Today’s Information Professional," Helen Partridge from the University of Southern Queensland, Pam Sandlian-Smith on "Creating Experience Libraries," Dr. Daisy Selematsela of the National Research Foundation in South Africa, Joyce Valenza of Rutgers University School of Communication & Information, and Jia Yang on "Exploring the Use of Information Visualization for Library." This year’s distinguished speakers include Stephen Abram on "7 Tactics to Gain Big Savings through Collaboration: Can we bravely take risks?," Christine Bruce, Hilary Hughes, and Ian Stoodley on "Information Experience: New approaches to theory and practice," Susan Hildreth on "Libraries as community learning partners - STEM, Maker and Badging!," Peter Morville on "The Architecture of Understanding," Michael Stephens on "Finding Balance: Reflective Practice and the Profession," Barbara Stripling on "Building a Learning Community Through a Library Learning Commons," Roy Tennant on "How to Be a 21st Century Librarian," David Weinberger on "John Henry in the Library: Algorithms vs. Humans." We certainly are! Feel free to use our promotional materials to help us share about Library 2.014, and follow the conversations at #Lib2014 for conference updates and broadening your professional network. What a great lineup scheduled this week - hope to see you there!

Recently, I had the opportunity to join my colleagues from the Online Learning Consortium (formerly Sloan-C), MERLOT, and the Emerging Technologies steering committee to share a sneak peek of what lies ahead at #et4online. We hung out to share details about the upcoming conference being held April 22-24, 2015 in Dallas, Texas. Who attends #et4online? image c/o @brocansky 6 Reasons Why You Should Join Us for #et4online Or hear what the #et4online Steering Committee Members have to say in our 1/30 Google+ Hangout ON AIR (recorded): Michelle Pacansky-Brock Conference Chair - @brocansky Jason Rhode, Assistant Conference Chair - @jasonrhode Jane Moore, MERLOT Program Chair - @janepmoore Laura Pasquini, OLC Program Chair - @laurapasquini Here are just a few of the MANY highlights for the #et4online program that we shared: The Unconference - dig into topics and direct the agenda as you like it Technology Test Kitchen - a maker space to explore, play & learn for ed tech Keynote & Plenary Speakers - talks about connection to learning, networked identity, collaborative knowledge, and then some Featured Sessions & Workshops - are just a few of the program items NOT to miss and learn from Discovery Sessions with VoiceThread - to augment interaction and learning between presenters and attendees The Launch Pad & Teacher Tank- Where #edtech start ups can show case their wares to our Ed Tech "sharks." Submission Deadline Closes February, 13, 2015 - apply now! Interested in attending (virtual or on site)? Register TODAY! Early bird pricing ends on February 25, 2015. Do you have questions about the conference or program? Leave a comment or hit me up on Twitter @jasonrhode

Discovery Education is hosting an ‘Epic Story Virtual Field Trip‘ on Wednesday, October 15, 2014, at 1pm EST. The event will last an hour and students can meet part of the Science Channel crew. Meet Wyatt Channell, Executive Producer of How the Universe Works, during our Virtual Field Trip to The Science Channel Headquarters. Learn how great stories are made and how Wyatt became an Executive Producer. Tweet and chat in your questions during the event. This is an excellent opportunity to expose students to a large audience of peers about a storytelling. Research shows when students know they have a large audience their performance and achievement is increased. This is a great opportunity to participate in an authentic writing and storytelling event for free. It will be livestreamed to don’t miss this exciting event!

Makeup, or cosmetic products, are some of the most commonly sold products around the world. They are used on a variety of areas of the body in order to enhance appearance, such as the eyes, lips and skin. Because they are designed to enhance beauty, cosmetics need to have a natural appeal on the shelf as well as a strong brand. The packaging of the product is one great way to help show off how the product can make you more attractive: Pantone Cosmetics Concept Designed by Renata Veiga Cedel Designed by Designed by Epic Thymes Studio Collection Designed by Cue The Basics Designed by mousegraphics Büro Designed by SocioDesign Cheeky Designed by Pearlfisher Hudson Made Worker’s Soap Designed by Hovard Design Swell Designed by Aloof Health Basics Designed by Milk Student Work - Carolin Boström Related Posts Love is in the Logo: 10 Inspiring Examples Useful HDR Tutorials with Spectacular Results jQuery Date and Calendar Plugins Cute Cat Logo Ideas Rocks, Stones and Pebbles in Photography

Grade Level:Tracking Online Education in the United States is the twelfth annual report on the state of online learning in U.S. higher education. The 2014 Survey of Online Learning conducted by the Babson Survey Research Group and co-sponsored by the Online Learning Consortium (OLC), Pearson and Tyton Partners, reveals the number of higher education students taking at least one distance education course in 2014 is up 3.7 percent from the previous year. While this represents the slowest rate of increase in over a decade, online enrollment growth far exceeded that of overall higher education. Key report findings include: The year-to-year 3.7% increase in the number of distance education students is the lowest recorded over the 13 years of this report series. Public and private nonprofit institutions recorded distance enrollment growth, but these were offset by a decrease among for-profit institutions. The percent of academic leaders rating the learning outcomes in online education as the same or superior to those in face-to-face remained unchanged at 74.1%. The proportion of chief academic leaders reporting online learning is critical to their long-term strategy reached a new high of 70.8%. Only 28.0% of academic leaders say that their faculty accept the "value and legitimacy of online education." The adoption of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Course) is reaching a plateau, only 8.0% of higher education institutions currently offer one, another 5.6% report MOOCs are in the planning stages. The proportion of academic leaders who believe that MOOCs represent a sustainable method for offering online courses dropped to 16.3%. Download the full report [PDF] or the infographic [PDF], displayed below. Click image above to enlarge

If you are like me, you are busy or focused elsewhere and misplace your keys, wallet, handbag, pens, etc. I hate when I lay things down and don’t know where I put it especially when I am in a hurry, running late or just had the item in my hand that I am now looking for. Well, I just learned about a new device that will help with that. I have an iPhone and have the find my iPhone option enabled in case I lose the phone or the phone is stolen outside of the household. The new device is called ‘Tile’ and you put the one inch GPS ‘Tile’ on or inside of whatever item you want to keep track of. There is a small hole to attach the device to a keychain or similar item. Tile’s website shares the following: At Tile, we believe that technology, design, and ingenuity can solve problems that most of us take for granted. Life’s little inconveniences add up: the average person misplaces upwards of 3,000 items a year, and then spends another 60 hours a year searching for them. All told, our misplaced stuff adds up to billions of dollars annually. Tile casts a signal across a 100-foot radius, making short work of any haystacks you lose your needles in. And since every phone with Tile helps find your stuff, your search range is potentially limitless. The app that supports the Tile device can support up to 8 tiles. The app records the last time your cell phone saw the Tile on the item you want to keep track of and reports that information to the app. The app works on the signal strength of the device and the physical location. It indicates the location of the Tile on a map and then indicates as you get closer to the item Tile is attached to. Lastly you can share the app with your friends so they can help you locate the items the device is attached to as well. Share access to your Tiles with friends, family, and coworkers so that you can stay on top of the stuff you all use. Whether you’re helping Dad find the remote or keeping tabs on the office laptops, you can make it a team effort. Currently the price is $20 a tile. They have an option to buy 3 for $60 and get 1 free. This is probably the option I might choose but I would love to hear from testers or anyone who gets one when it is finally released. For now, you can reserve your tiles and the app is only available for iOS but the Android version is soon to be released. What are your thoughts? Just another gimmick or a valuable tool to use on a daily basis? I have shared my opinion - please share yours!      

Today we have a brand new set of Vintage Paper Textures that you can use for so many things. They are excellent as backgrounds and overlays in your photography and design projects. Free for commercial usage, and you can download a Zip file below the sample images. Enjoy! Download all textures as ZIP from copy.com (10.8Mb) Did you like these textures? Let us know by leaving a comment, and you can even post a link if you used them in your artwork. Related Posts Free Texture Friday - Vintage Book 3 Free Texture Friday - Vintage Paper 8 Free Texture Friday - Vintage Stone Wall 2 Free Texture Friday - Color Stained Paper 4 Free Texture Friday - Vintage Paper 7