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Some very interesting Microsoft applications that might be suitable for schools. It includes Beginner Developer, Chemistry Add-in for Word, Education Labs for Maths test creation, Microsoft Robotics and others. Hat tip to Skipz

A great place to find tech tools to use with MS Office programs. Find and download alll of Microsoft's free tools for teachers and students.  Updated 3.18.2012 Microsoft Partners in Learning helps educators connect, collaborate, create and share. TeachTec is a Microsoft Partners in Learning resource that helps educators find relevant and effective ways to use technology to inspire teaching and engage students. Together we have consolidated the latest and most popular teacher and student resources that Microsoft provides to all schools, districts and education organizations around the world.

Online social networking at its best. This Ning page is centered around using online resources in today's classrooms. Excellent group!

web 2,  classroom practice

This is an interesting website with a great collection of tools for use in e-learning, blended classrooms and traditional teaching.

25 Teaching Tools To Organize, Innovate, & Manage Your Classroom

"there is something that I've noticed in many classes I've visited - there are still some educators that don't seem to know the no nos for teaching with a projector or interactive whiteboard (IWB). Perhaps it's easier to notice when you're sitting as an audience member or an observer which is not often the case for teachers. If you're an innovative educator teaching with a projector or IWB, you too might be engaging in a no no or two."

A Web 3.0 teaching tool for a wide variety of languages includes student progress achievements and pratice drills. The free trial is definately worth checking out with your students if you teach languages.

"We all know that students find it far more challenging to answer word problems than simple equations. In Math Shake, learners practise the vital skill of solving word problems in a fun, focused way. Learners engage their critical thinking skills as they use the keywords to change word problems into equations and use interactive learning tools to visualise, image and work out their answer. Not only do learners have a range of learning tools at their fingertips, they can share their thinking by recording their working.Teachers and parents can also use Math Shake to teach learners with the interactive tools; including tens frames, number matrixes, fraction parts, number lines and counters. "

"Picturing the 1930s," a new educational web site created by the Smithsonian American Art Museum in collaboration with the University of Virginia, allows teachers and students to explore the 1930s through paintings, artist memorabilia, historical documents, newsreels, period photographs, music, and video. Using PrimaryAccess, a web-based teaching tool developed at the university's Curry Center for Technology and Teacher Education, visitors can select images, write text, and record narration in the style of a documentary filmmaker. They can then screen their video in a virtual theater. PrimaryAccess is the first online tool that allows students to combine their own text, historical images from primary sources, and audio narration to create short online documentary films linked to social studies standards of learning, said Glen Bull, co-director of the Curry Center. Since the first version was developed in collaboration with U.Va.'s Center for Digital History and piloted in a local elementary school in 2005, more than 9,000 users worldwide have created more than 20,000 short movies. In creating digital documentaries, students embed facts and events in a narrative context that can enhance their retention and understanding of the material, said Curry research scientist Bill Ferster, who developed the application with Bull. Besides increasing their knowledge about the period, "Picturing the 1930s" enhances students' visual literacy skills, Ferster noted, adding that PrimaryAccess "offers teachers another tool to bring history alive."

Google Apps Education Edition is a broad IT solution that schools can use to bring communication and collaboration tools to the entire academic community for free. Google manages all the technology details, so you can focus your time, energy and budgets on teaching your kids. Students, teachers and staff can share ideas more quickly and get things done more effectively when they have access to the same powerful communication and sharing tools. Google Apps Education Edition lets tech administrators provide email, sharable online calendars, instant messaging tools and even a dedicated website to faculty, students and staff for free. There's no hardware or software to install or maintain, since everything is delivered through a standard web browser -- anytime, from anyplace.

VoiceThread Digital Library Submission VoiceThread is creating a digital library of outstanding examples of teaching Threads and we need our community of educators to help us build this resource. The intention is not just to 'favorite' or 'tag' great examples but to explore and document how they were done and what was learned. The end result will be a detailed article that other educators can utilize to help guide their work, so please give us as much information as possible. We hope to open the Library in January so submit them whenever you can and spread word of the project to others. As a token of thanks we'll be giving $20 worth of archival exports to all of the submitters whose work is published in the library. Thanks very much for helping us! Our tool wouldn't be what it is without you.

Voicethread is creating a list of outstanding examples of teaching Threads. Not just a simple tag exercise they are asking questions related to pedagogy and the teaching decisions we make. At last a co that not only produces a useful tool, but who understands the educators mind.

Seating Chart Maker is an application that can help you get all your students where they belong. Whether it's a child with vision issues who needs to be in the front of the class, or those two kids who just cannot be allowed to sit next to each other-too much talking or too much fighting-this tool can help you spend less time figuring out the classroom logistics and more time teaching your students what they need to know. And isn't that really why you teach? Written by the spouse of a teacher, Seating Chart Maker runs under Windows and is a free download.

Tools like 'PhotoMath' present educators with a genuine challenge and leave many asking should we allow our students to use tools such as these?

"It's a challenging process, and it requires experienced educators and technologists to find value in the data. For that reason, Duke University's Randy Riddle has been working with professors and other faculty for more the last 13 years, honing his expertise and delivering tools that boost engagement and learning. "

Thoughtful article on "social capital"

2. Stress the consideration and application of principles rather than relying on a detailed set of rules. Although sometimes more difficult to enforce in a consistent manner, a set of a few guidelines* rather than lengthy set of specific rules is more beneficial to students in the long run. By applying guidelines rather than following rules, students engage in higher level thinking processes and learn behaviors that will continue into their next classroom, their homes, and their adult lives.

Teaching ethical and safe use of ICTs.

So many issues here to deal with. Good read.