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Globe and Mail visual graph: Is technology a boon or burden in the classroom? As the world becomes increasingly digital, school boards are trying to negotiate technology's role in the classroom. Some have embraced digital tools, enhancing their classrooms with Smartboards, cell phones and social media. Others have favoured tradition, claiming technology is a distraction and a nuisance. Where do Globe readers stand? Each dot on this graph represents one person's response colour-coded by age group.

Fortunately there are a number of free tools that do these things and they are available for use on any technology platform as they require nothing more than access to the internet. Recently Eric Sheninger used a set of these tools to give his audience at the Hawker Brownlow Conference on Thinking and Learning in Melbourne a voice.

Joyce Valenza and Kristen Swanson, have assembled a good collection of Web 2.0 tools and guides for teachers. The collection is part of STHS Library Guides. Their new tools catalog is organized by function (wikis, podcasting, etc) and topics related to technology use in schools (media literacy, fair use, privacy).  Applications for EducationIf you're the technology integration specialist or just the "techy" person that everyone goes to, the STHS Library New Tools is a good site to refer your colleagues to when they need a quick reference to learn about new tools.

This is a pretty decent collection of web tools and descriptions to pass along as references/resources of ed tech.

An amazing array of resources for education: digital storytelling, copyright/creative commons, tag clouds, mindmapping, digital citizenship and more.  Take 10 minutes to peruse this - impressive collection. Looks current, too.

Cell Phones in education - blog post by Wes Fryer at www.isteconnects.org

Presentations about the uses of cell phones to support learning both inside and outside the traditional classroom have been popular as well as contentious at educational technology conferences in the past year. I first become aware of the wide variety of constructive ways cell phones can be used to support learning through Liz Kolb's presentation for the 2007 K-12 Online Conference, "Cell Phones as Classroom Learning Tools." Liz is the author of the blog "From Toy to Tool: Cell Phones in Learning," and published the book "Toys to Tools: Connecting Student Cell Phones to Education" with ISTE in 2008. This past week, at the eTechOhio conference in Columbus, I heard Ohio technology director Ryan Collins' outstanding presentation "Cellphones in the classroom? Yes way!" In his session Ryan identified seven different ways cell phones can and are being used to support learning:

Since I've been teaching for more than three decades I remember a time when technology was accepted by all teachers. In fact, I remember a time when my administration gave me my first Apple computer to use. My students were all huddled around me as I investigated new learning tools. The graphics were terrible but it was like magic to my students.

List of Top 100 Tools for Learning from Centre Fore Learning & Performance Technologies; decent summary of technology in education trends, shared by Sue Van Den Acre, via Magi Koch

Please check out this opportunity to help the students at my school have new technology tools. This will help them in many ways. We integrate all other courses with our technology projects. In a way these tools will help with every area of their learning at school.

The trick to effective mind mapping is finding the right tool for the job - whether that tool is pen and paper, as Guy Lewis used to unravel his personal life, or dedicated software, as Patrick Lynch used to explain Wild Apricot's features to his colleagu

"Even as we are seeing more schools and educators transform the way they teach and learn with technology, many more are not. .. Opinions vary on the merits of educational technology, but common themes seem to have emerged.  Some of the reasons for not embracing technology have to do with several misconceptions revolving around fear."

Intel offers free, easily integrated tools and teaching resources to support collaborative student-centered learning. Our online thinking tools provide active learning places where students can engage in robust discussions, analyze complex information, pursue investigations, and solve problems. You'll also find teaching resources such as exemplary lesson plans, assessment strategies, and technology-enriched project ideas for all K-12 subjects. Developed by educators, these free tools and resources support 21st century learning, with project-based approaches in the classroom.

I've long said that professors who want to explore teaching with technology should begin with a social media tool rather than a Learning Management System. Web 2.0 tools are simple to use, invite student collaboration, and are usually less administratively clunky and complex than an LMS.One of the easiest and most powerful tools is the regular old wiki. Wikis are simply web pages that can be edited by their users. Instead of only carrying content from the administrator, they harness the power of crowdsourcing to create a powerful communal resource.

"As a technology teacher, I always keep looking for new tools to excite my students. During parent-teacher conferences, when a parent comes and asks me how's their child doing at my subject I almost always say, "Everyone is good at technology" or "All of them love ICT lessons". But when I'm alone, I reflect on these statements many times. If everyone already loves technology and is good at it, then what am I here for? What's my role? This is a generation of digital natives. You show a two-year-old how to scroll through the camera roll of your phone once and they won't ask you again. This makes me question my validity again and again."

"321 Free Tools for Teachers separated in 18 educational technology categories." */2013

This site provides resources using a clickable list that takes you to the sources to best meet you and your students learning goals.

Great site with specific suggestions for technology tools based on objectives.

Technology and teaching - two words that seem to fit together perfectly today for most teachers and learners. So much so that a slew of new blogs have come on board to talk about education technology - or, edTech. This list of the 50 best education technology blogs are not inclusive, as there are so many new blogs available; however, if you look at links provided by many of these blogs to other edTech blogs, you may learn about even more blog that you aren't reading yet.

Mere substitution is not going to help our learners maximise the affordances of technology. The challenge is to find ways by which technology can enhance learning. We can be certain that technology is not going to go away and that those who maximise the affordances that it brings are likely to gain the most from it. 

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

"Your school might not have a 3D printer yet, but your students can still create 3D models online with these free online tools." These tools can be used on a variety of devices, including iPads, Mac, Windows, and there are a couple that can be used on Chromebooks.