The online world has a vast number of web and mobile applications and programs that claim to enhance critical thinking. Many of them may be simply edu-tainment, but there are others which are deeply engaging, well considered applications that do in fact challenge students in all the right ways. I try and separate the wheat from the chaff, in what I hope is a quality selection of Critical Thinking EdTech.

Technology has improved accessing information, entertainment and education for differently abled students. We have touched the subject of web accessibility on this blog before — why it matters and how to create such a design. For this blog, I thought it would be a fun, and useful exercise to explore some of these incredible technologies aimed at supporting the visually impaired in reaching their goals.

If nothing else, the key thing that both marketers and educators have in common is that they’re trying to create a deep, emotional connection between their audience and the message they’re trying to get across. But teachers still fill lessons with textbooks featuring page after page of dissections of topics that naturally keep students at arms length. It’s time educators learn something from marketers in terms of visual communication.

We all hope that the future generations, who have been taught using a blend of face-to-face and online education, will still recall the teachers (rather than the software) that made a difference. There are a few habits that great online instructors (I prefer e-teachers) employ to find that tricky balance between mapping out yards of content, and adding a pace, personality and enjoyment to their subjects. Here are three of them:

Many schools have embraced Edtech in their curriculum when it comes to teaching subjects like science, math, history, geography, etc. But the true potential of EdTech will be left untapped until it is used to rekindle the interest around creative art, an area of education that seems to have been neglected by our school system. Let’s take a look at a few creative art skills and how they can be developed with the help of Edtech.

Good digital citizens typically use technology and online content legally, don’t troll or abuse others online and generally use technology in a positive way. Good Digital Citizenship also amounts to a form of “online hygiene”, teaching students these kinds of “clean” online practices will keep them and their data safer. Today’s blog explores a few useful examples.

Allowing students to use their mobile devices for learning at school used to be a wild idea. But let’s face the fears surrounding BYOD and follow those that already achieved wonderful results by allowing students to bring their own devices to school and use them for their learning. So, I invite you to place the next three myths about BYOD in the classroom right next to dragons, flying horses, and the treasure at the end of the rainbow.

Today we will further that exploration via a few definitions mooted by pedagogues over the years, each of which offers a useful insight into how the role of instructor needs to change in environments were content and information is freely available, but where collaboration, creativity and critical thinking needs to be ever more actively, and explicitly encouraged. The networked learning environments will only expand and grow.

Enabling interaction, collaboration and social learning online is perhaps the most difficult, and yet most important, part of teaching online. To truly create a dynamic, interactive, social and collaboration-rich online learning environment requires a redefinition of what it is to teach. So how do the practices of the educator change in networked environments, where information is readily accessible? Read on to find out.