LibGuides look handy, but you can put together the same functionality using wordpress.

LibGuides is the amazingly popular, easy to use, web 2.0 content management and library knowledge sharing system. Libraries use it to create attractive multimedia content, share knowledge and information, and promote library resources to the community

Wes Fryer's list of (nearly) all free software he uses to create podcasts.

Here's another idea we could be considering. 1:1 laptop programs might be kind of expensive. What about 1:1 iPod touches?

Using Google apps/sites to create e-portfolios.

school technology bestpractice collaboration wifi

podcast tutorial includes some nice screencast tutorials

Many more cool tools than I could ever investigate, let alone use.

Remind me again why schools spend so much of their budget on textbooks?

"On average, students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face-to-face instruction."

Are the online/electronic resources already more cost effective? If so, when do we stop holding onto an outdated model of resource delivery?

This is written regarding post secondary students, but I think that it applies equally well to K-12.

"This new media environment can be enormously disruptive to our current teaching methods and philosophies. As we increasingly move toward an environment of instant and infinite information, it becomes less important for students to know, memorize, or recall information, and more important for them to be able to find, sort, analyze, share, discuss, critique, and create information. They need to move from being simply knowledgeable to being knowledge-able."