• Prince Harry in US for military training
• Top 5 discoveries for teaching literacy (etories)
• Curation and the classroom - discovering and curating the best of the web for your students and colleagues (education)

These stories and more in today's ReadWriteLearn's Daily Digest.

So much that has been said and is being remembered about Apple co-founder, Steve Jobs, is food for thought for all educators.

The following YouTube video is one of my favourites, and a reminder of how important it is to encourage critical thinking, creativity and imagination in students.

R.I.P. Mr Jobs. Your legacy will not be forgotten.

• Climate Change and the end of Australia
• Swedish poet wins Nobel prize for Literature
• 5 cool things Steve Jobs left us (that weren't gadgets or computers)

These stories and more in today's ReadWriteLearn's Daily Digest.

Anyone who knows me knows I love my Kindle - for lots of reasons. Just one of those reasons is the fact that most days there are free titles. And, I do love a freebie!

Sure, these vary in genre and quality, and there's obvious promotional  agendas in them being made available: to hook readers into a series, to promote new authors, to clear slow-moving titles, for example. But, with three happy Kindlers in my family, I work on the principle that most titles are worth a look - and if nobody's interested in reading them: left-flick, delete, gone! 

So, this morning I was pretty excited to see that publishing heavyweight, Harper Collins, has made available more than 120 titles for FREE to Australian readers. (Most Kindlers know there are geographic restrictions that limit what books are available where, and these titles appear to be Australian-only at the moment.)

Titles span all genres and include fiction and non-fiction, adults and children's fiction. There are several well-known authors amongst the list including:

• Irish writer, Cecelia Ahern
• Historical writer, Bernard Cornwell, has a three title omnibus of his Sharpe's Company titles.
• Two titles from Dean Koontz
• Jack Higgins

...Just to list a few of the titles I grabbed as downloads for pre-orders.

You can browse the list of 40+ pre-orders HERE and the full list of 120+ titles HERE.

• 7 Tech breakthroughs that empower people with disabilities
• 4 ways to use Edmodo for mobile learning (education)
• 10 open education resources you may not know about (but should) (education)
• The best online resources for teaching and learning about WWII (stories)
• $35 tablet computer launched in India (technology)

These stories and more in today's ReadWriteLearn's Daily Digest.

• Tattoo remorse: 25 of your most loved or loathed
• The A-Z Dictionary of Educational Twitter Hashtags
• Google search by reading level (education)
• An animated history of poverty (education)
• Is Iceland the best country for women? (society)

These stories and more in ReadWriteLearn's Daily Digest.

I'll happily confess to being a literature geek. So when I received my morning email from Flavorwire.com with a subject header of 'Incredibly adorable baby pictures of famous authors' of course I was going to click through!

I love peeking through family albums of old pics, and it's even better that these days social media, like Facebook, makes sharing such pictures even easier. While I would not trade the convenience of today's digital photography, there's something special about the faded greys of black and white photos from the past. Maybe it's because there is a nostalgic-value associated with such images and the past itself? Perhaps it's the capturing of a moment in time, and the act  of freezing it to preserve it - as is the strength of any family pic? It could also be that it is just a little bit of fun to ooh and ahh, and giggle and point, and compare and contrast with ourselves and loved ones today. For me, it's a little of each, but I also like that it helps to add a depth and reality to my perceptions of people. Seeing images of younger days brings home that those I know, or know of, had full, complete lives, with all the joys, irritations and general range of life's ups and downs - just like me and my immediate family.

Flavorwire features 15 baby and child photos of famous authors and poets, including (as above) Ernest Hemingway, Sylvia Plath, Roald Dahl and James Joyce among others. I particularly like the faded photo of John Steinbeck (Of Mice and Men, The Grapes of Wrath) holding his pony. Also, there is a great image of Rudyard Kipling as a child, arms folded and face set in stubbornness or a sulk - at least that's how I imagine him to have been the day the picture was taken.

The slideshow of images features a range of American and European/British authors. I would like to have seen some Australian writers represented, but a quick search before writing this post was unsuccessful in finding any similar-aged shots of Australian composers such as Henry Lawson (my favourite), Barbara Baynton, CJ Dennis or AB (Banjo) Paterson. I did find some early images of Miles Franklin, including a very early baby picture and a family picture taken 1894. You can see them HERE.

If you, too, are a literature geek, then check out the junior author pics at Flavorwire. You might also find another feature at this site interesting: 10 Bestselling books that were originally rejected.

Hope you all enjoyed the long weekend and are looking forward to one more week of school holidays.

Grab a cuppa and sit down for your morning browse of today's ReadWrite Learn's Daily Digest....

• Elderly immobile man labelled a physical threat
  
• Why scientists are smarter than politicians.
• What's the deal with class size? (education)
• 60+ education resources to teach yourself anything (education)
• Afghan women's rights still at risk (society)

These stories and more in today's ReadWriteLearn's Daily Digest.

• A Visual History of Twitter - a fascinating infographic of  the rise and rise of micro-blogging
• 7 tips to creating stand-out visual presentations - an excellent Slideshare presentation to watch and share with students.
• Why I write: A celebration of the National Day of Writing (education)
• Mick Jagger to play corrupt media mogul in upcoming movie (entertainment)
• 32 ways to use Google Apps in the classroom (#edchat)

These stories and more in ReadWriteLearn's Daily Digest.

• UK Red Cross honors Stephen Fry
• 15 things students want the nation to know about education
• Are we going to get fatter and fatter? (education)
• 10 reasons teachers make great punching bags (#edchat)

These stories and more in ReadWriteLearn's Daily Digest.