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Good look at the pros and cons of Cloud storage and 15 free tools to give any teacher more than enough storage. Many of these tools allow you to access files on computers and mobile devices that sync with each other, so you have the same version on every device. I have almost all of my files in cloud storage. My favs are Google Docs, Dropbox, Box, and Sugar Sync. I'm going to try another - Docuter (http://www.docuter.com/) that has 25GB of free storage.

"21 Digital Tools to Build Vocabulary" - vocabulary literacy researcher/writer Kimberly Tyson shares some excellent tools for building vocabulary, which she sees as one of the most important activities teachers should get right. She shares the important role vocabulary plays in the CCSS. See some of her other blog posts.

Katie Ritter's graphics - Web Tools for Bloom's Taxonomy, by Category & Flow Chart - will help you get some ideas of tools to use to support students learning process - not just the "content"

This is a helpful, easy to read guide with videos on Evernote, a tool for teachers and students to bookmark, record voicemails, take text and voice notes, upload pictures, docs, PDFs and files, and capture images and information on the web as well as as a software download on your computer or as a plugin for your browser and also as an application for your mobile device. My goal this summer is to begin to maximize the my use of the tool, as I love being able to use it on my computers and mobile devices.

Snaggy is a web-based tool for drawing on, annotating, and sharing screen captures. To draw or write on your screen capture just paste your screen capture image into Snaggy. Snaggy offers tools for highlighting a section of your screen capture, typing on it, and drawing free-hand on your image. You can also use Snaggy to crop your image. When you're ready to share your screen capture, Snaggy assigns is a custom url that you can Tweet, email, or post anywhere you like. Snaggy lets you save your edited screen captures to your computer too.

This tool allows you to print web pages stripping away all the adds, images, etc. from the page to give you a clean print. It also allows you to save the portions you want to keep in .pdf. Another similar tool is called Printliminator. Check them out. You'll save toner & paper in the process and have the things you want to read in print in an uncluttered format.

Some neat tools for annotating Youtube videos and assessing student understanding/learning during and after the video.

Here are some great tools for students and teachers for taking/accessing notes - both on mobile devices and computers. I prefer using Evernote, but if I wasn't using a mobile device, I might consider using Google Docs as my 2nd choice.

The fear of failure keeps us from moving forward in an age of rapid change. This quote below summarizes some of the feelings teachers have as they face this change: "As I read this morning's daily post from Seth Godin's blog,  the concerns of people who are anxious about the transition we will be undertaking as we move to becoming a 1:1 school are forefront in my mind.  One of the biggest fears I hear from some people is that they are concerned about losing control control due to the fact that they will not know how to best utilize all of the tools that they will have at their disposal.  They are afraid that their students may know more than they do in regards to using the new tools that they will be trying to implement." 

My response: Patrick, thanks for bringing the issue to us to consider. No matter how we see it, it is a discussion that is important to have. It does mean we have quite a responsibility to use the tools we have well. On a Classroom 2.0 Live webinar today, there was a discussion of the technology needing to be transformative, not just a substitute for paper/pencils/books, etc. or just an electronic version of the same curriculum. That brings us to the pedagogical approach of each teacher. If they just place their old methodology on top of the technology, nothing much different will occur. BUT...if they see their method of how students will interact with them and course material differently, the technology can be a tool both the teacher and student can enjoy and in the process they can become more creative, collaborative, and communicative.

gClassFolders is a tool that allows for management of all the files that students share with teachers and allows for sharing easily with students. The setup is straight forward and sets up three folders for students for a class - Edit, Preview(Read Only) and Dropbox to turn work in. If your school can't afford Hapara or you don't want to spend lots of time setting up folders, this may be the tool for you.

Jennifer Roberts, a veteran English teacher in San Diego, and a Google Certified teacher, shares how she approaches plagiarism with her students and uses the tools in Google Apps & Google Search to help curb intentional and unintentional plagiarism.

This site is toolbox with tools for Assistive Technology. View the Google Presentation and learn more about how to use Google Chrome tools to provide greater access for students with disabilities.

"Coding In The Classroom: 10 Tools Students Can Use To Design Apps & Video Games" gives some of the best sites where students can learn code for design work. This is a must skill for students who have an interest in computer programming and developing games/apps.

These are good tools for any admin. Haven't had any experience yet with Microsoft Live Writer, but will be looking into it.

Dropbox is one of those tools that's an essential for teachers, admin., and students

Snaplr is a simple way to capture and annotate your desktop's activity. Its Free to download. After taking your screenshot, you can highlight a specific screenshot area further with a set of drawing tools. Copy your screenshot to the clipboard and paste it to an email or save it as a png attachment instead.  Works great in Gmail and Outlook. I like using this in Windows as Google Chrome doesn't have the best screen capture extensions right now that can annotate as easily as this tool.

Good review of Jaycut and the features from someone who has used the app. Another example of how students can leverage powerful tools without having it reside on a local computer/server. 

Great tool for scheduling a Google+ hangout. Gives those you invite a few date options and allows you to schedule the hangout based on how invitees respond, or you can have the scheduler set up the event based on the responses you receive. 

Nice tool to create bundles of inks which you can share with others. I also like using Only2Cicks, Sqworl, and Symbaloo.