6 Reasons Tablets Are Ready for the Classroom – “By looking at all that tablets offer in the context of student behavior and some of the recent trends in education, it’s clear that tablets are ready for the classroom.” Mashable

Crowdsourcing Education Innovation, For Cash – “One of the largest educational publishers in the world is offering cash prizes to the winners of a crowdsourced learning product innovation competition.” FastCompany

Entourage shuts down Edge content store, devices reportedly discontinued – “It seems natural selection has finally caught up with the Entourage Edge.” Engadget

World’s Smartest Pens Get Social – “LiveScribe makes pens that record audio in sync with a writer’s notes and allow him to play it back at a specific moment by tapping the desired place in his notebook.” Mashable

Amazon Looks To Build Full-Fledged Publishing House – “Laurence Kirshbaum, the former CEO of Time Warner’s book division and most recently the founder of a well-respected, 40-client literary agency, has been named publisher of Amazon’s New York publishing office.” Mashable

NPG, CSU partner for $49 dynamic digital textbooks – “CSU has announced a three-year deal with Nature Publishing Group for low-cost, interactive, web-based textbooks with access options for disabled students.” Engadget

How Social Media & Game Mechanics Can Motivate Students – “Social media and online games have the potential to convey 21st century skills that aren’t necessarily part of school curricula — things like time management, leadership, teamwork and creative problem solving that will prepare teens for success in college and beyond.” Mashable

Organize An Offline Class With Skillshare – “Skillshare, which launched in April, is a marketplace for offline classes. Anyone can sell tickets for a class.” Mashable

What College Degrees Are Really Worth – “A new study from Georgetown University breaks down which majors of study result in the highest career earnings. Art majors, ask a friend if you can borrow his computer to read this.” FastCompany

Microsoft manager teams up with teens to build a fusion reactor in his garage (video) – “The science fanatic recruited a team of teens, as young as 13, and worked with them to build a Farnsworth–Hirsch Fusor — a (comparatively) simple nuclear reactor that smashes together atoms and produces neutrons.” Engadget

Watermelon Express Rebrands As BenchPrep; Launches App Store For Test Prep Content – “BenchPrep develops cross-platform apps to help students prepare for a number of standardized tests including the GRE, SAT, GMAT, LSAT and MCAT.” TechCrunch

The Kno Textbook App Hits The iPad – “Last night, Kno quietly released its first digital textbook app for the iPad. It includes its own store of “over 70,000 titles at 30% to 50% off list” price. And the app is a full textbook reader.” TechCrunch