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"Exceptions don't contradict what I'm trying to explain here, but rather prove the point that: A tool is just a tool! I can use a hammer to build a house and I can use the same hammer on a human skull. It's not the tool, but how you use it that matters."

"If you have sat through one too many bad PowerPoint presentations or seen too many posters thrown together at the last minute, it's time to change how your students put together their presentations. With these 10 presentation tools for students, you will significantly reduce the amount of boring presentations you have to sit through. These tools will encourage your students to be creative and think critically when they plan their next presentations."

""The new website is all about what teachers and students can do with those videos," explains TED-Ed catalyst Logan Smalley. "The goal of TED-Ed is for each great lesson to reach and motivate as many learners as possible. The new website goes a step further, allowing any teacher to tailor video content, create unique lesson plans, and monitor students' progress. By putting this new technology to use, we hope to maximize time in class and give teachers an exciting tool for customizing - and encouraging - learning.""

There is a new timeline tool in town! Actually MyHistro is more than just a timeline - it has a  built-in mapping tool too.

" When you're trying to teach people how to do something new on their computers having screencast videos or annotated screen capture images can be invaluable to you and the people you're trying to help. Here are some free tools that you can use to create screen capture videos and images. "

As teachers, our plates are perpetually and impossibly full. The idea of adding one more component - such as incorporating technology into instruction - can seem daunting to say the least. In my own attempts to incorporate technology into my practice, Google has been the most valuable tool I have found thus far. Not only does it increase my ability to organize my instructional tools, but it also allows me to incorporate more technology when I feel ready to do so.

"Pinterest, a social sharing website that allow users to create and share virtual bulletin boards, has been the darling of social media over the past year. Its primarily female user base continues to grow by leaps and bounds. While you likely know teachers who have free Pinterest accounts, you may still be wondering if you belong on yet another social media site. "YES!" (Uttered quickly and with much enthusiasm!) And here's why. While Pinterest is exploding with fashion boards, trendy home decor, and to-die-for travel destinations (that sadly don't fit my budget), it also includes many boards for educators. Pinterest, heavy on visual appeal, can serve as a great resource for such areas as: classroom decor, language arts. content areas, lesson plans, technology tools, professional books, and much, much more! Your boards can also be a resource for students (age 13+ according to Pinterest regulations), teachers, and parents. If you're a newbie to Pinterest, listed below are a few must-know terms and how-to's. With a few quick tips, Pinterest can help you organize the internet jumble of resources for teachers and students. If you're a full-fledged addict, er, Pinterest Pro, skip to How Educators Use Pinterest or simply download today's Pinterest Cheat Sheet that also includes many ideas for boards."

"Back in May Google added an integrated research tool to Google Docs. The research tool allows you to quickly find images, quotes, and links without leaving your document." Today, Google added the research too l to Google Docs presentations and drawings."

Ramsey Musallam, a high school chemistry teacher from the San Francisco Bay Area, has been creatively using digital tools in his classroom for several years as a way to drive students to deeper inquiry. In a recent TED talk, Musallam says that a teacher's strongest tool - the force that draws students deeper into learning - is piquing students' curiosity. In his classroom, Musallam follows three rules: curiosity comes first, embrace the mess, and reflect and revise.

A collection of web-based Thinking Tools

what has become evident is that the greatest benefit of using iPads in the classroom is not use see them as a teaching tool, but instead as a tool for students to demonstrate their understanding in many different ways.

While iPads might be taking up a lot of buzz in the classroom technology world, laptops are still a widely used tool for both personal and classroom use. Choosing a laptop may not be a simple task, either - there are a lot of choices out there. Making sure it has the right tools you need and falls into a price range that works for you tend to be the top two factors for most people who are in the market for a new laptop. So we thought it'd be useful to tackle the best laptops for teachers in a world filled with iPads and smartphones.

Rubrics can be an incredibly useful tool for your classroom. Aside from being one of those cool words that sounds a little weirder every time you say it, using a rubric can help your students understand the assignments in your classroom, and will make your grading process clearer, faster, and more objective and consistent. Online rubric makers can make rubric creation pretty simple, so we've collected a few sites that offers online rubric makers (some of them are free) that can help you out in your classroom. There are many sites out there that also offer shared rubrics from other users that you can use as well - quite a helpful tool if you're either in a pinch, or at a loss for where to start.

Tools for Creating Creating Screen Capture Images and Videos

Tools, Applications, Inspiration, Visualisation and Data Sources for making Infographics. Ideas, Software, Design, PSD

Forms are one of the most useful tools in the Google toolkit. For some time, however, users have been looking for more functionality and an improved appearance in the product.  It's finally here with the recent announcement that Google Forms has a range of new themes and options, including the ability to customise the theme with your own image.  These changes have really lifted the appearance and make them a great deal more appealing.

If you're a user of Google Drive, then no doubt you have also heard of and likely used Google Presentations (Google's version of PowerPoint). It's a great tool to create slick presentations in the cloud, especially after its most recent overhaul. However, Google Presentations is also a handy tool for doing some great projects with your students that have nothing to do with public speaking. Here are some fun exercises you can try in your classes.

Google Docs is a powerful word processing tool that many schools have adopted. As it's similar to Microsoft Word and other word processing tools, most of its features are intuitive to use. However, in addition to completing many of the functions of a traditional word processor, Google Docs provides even more capabilities that can be invaluable to educators. Here are ten tricks that can make your life easier with Google Docs:

The Wayback Machine is as basic a reference tool for the Internet Age as a dictionary. When was the last time you saw a student use it?