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This site features many interactive learning and design tools for teachers and lots of ideas and examples for integrating technology. 4Teachers features professional development, educational video games, success stories, and a videos channel. It also has links to a "Family of Tools" including QuizStar, RubiStar, Academic Skill Builders, PersuadeStar, Equity, TrackStar, Assign-A-Day, Casa Notes, PBL Checklists, Teacher Tacklebox, Web Poster Wizard, NoteStar, Think Tank, and KidsVid. There are also assessment resources available.

This article points to the importance of proper teacher training and use of technology to garner student academic achievement. Students need to have the technology tools accessible to them to be sucessful. Test data needs to be collected (from programs like TestWiz) in order to identify learning strengths and weaknesses. Finally, the author states that it takes a "community of educators and a host of technology tools" to ensure students meet No Child Left Behind (NCLB) standards.

Andrea Keith gives an overview of the safe email services provided by Gaggle.net. Gaggle is dedicated to providing safe email accounts for students. The tools they provide allow schools to feel secure when giving their students email access. Gaggle offers both free and paid services.

Document cameras, also known as "visual presenters," are electronic presentation tools teachers and instructional technologists use to display anything from documents and drawings to 3-D renderings and other objects that cannot be displayed on a standard overhead projector. Through the use of a megapixel sensor camera (instead of a set of mirrors and light tables), images can be displayed on an interactive whiteboard or overhead screen just by placing the item on the presenter, therefore eliminating the need for transparencies. Most models also offer the ability to interface with other electronic media in order to display digital images and video.

Cherokee County, GA's program for getting technology tools to teachers who are motivated to use them. I listened to a podcast of their presentation at GAETC 2007. Sounds like a great way to use limited money to put technology into classrooms where it will be used. Teachers have to commit a lot of time to training, implementing lessons, and sharing what they did.

This article, retrieved from "Tools for TEKS- Integrating Technology in the Classroom" site, goes into why teachers should harness many of the new powers available to them now that read/write web (Web 2.0) programs are so readily available. Now that students have cell phones and are constantly posting to blogs, wikis, and YouTube, the author argues that we as teachers should put these things to good use in the classroom. Cell phones, as well as other digital audio and visual recording devices, can be used to gather and later present information for class projects.

In this article, the author describes a project where students in a 4th grade classroom complete Internet-based lessons about each region of the United States. They then use presentation tools like PowerPoint (which could now be Web 2.0 presentations tools, since this article was published in 2002) to create take-home reports to share with their parents. This artcile has some great ideas and insights into things that could be done differently the next time. Technology upgrades would also make the lessons more interesting, being that it is 2008.

This article talks about a project that was used in a social studies curriculum for 4 or 5th grade students where there is technology integrated into internet based lessons. They also use technology to prepare reports. The beginning gives a quick introduction about technology and the internet in schools today to prepare children for real-world situations. Then it goes into describing the project given to the students and how it affected them.

Southern California's San Fernando Education Technology Team focuses on learning by doing and speaks to students' fascination with technology and all things digital. Students use multimedia tools to create a variety of projects.

Website of screencasts showing different web tools.

This is a helpful piece, targeted slightly to teachers of younger children, concerning how to integrate Wikis into a classroom experience.

The ability to display images, video, and sound on demand with little download time has proven itself essential to the classroom teacher or instructional technologist looking to bridge what is said to what is seen and heard. Using MPEG compression technology through a broadband connection, streaming media, such as that provided by Discovery Education Streaming, readily provides students the opportunity to see/hear prerecorded movies, music, and excerpts from online libraries more extensive than any school media center. Live broadcast feeds enhance classroom experiences through real-time experiences and interactions with other students or experts. Online classes utilize streaming technology, as well.