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Using thinking tools is one way to "make thinking visible" and help our students explain their thoughts in a simple and explicit way. As the team from Project Zero themselves say "Visible Thinking includes a large number of classroom routines, easily and flexibly integrated with content learning, and representing areas of thinking such as understanding, truth and evidence, fairness and moral reasoning, creativity, self-management, and decision making. It also provides tools for integrating the arts with subject-matter content. Finally, it includes a practical framework for how to create "cultures of thinking" in individual classrooms and within an entire school."

Here are the Top 100 Tools for Learning 2013 -  the results of the 7th Annual Learning Tools Survey. Not only is it an interesting list, but a great place to start to look for new ideas and programs.

An interesting list of tools for doing research online.

"Cooperative Learning Tools"

"It was not long ago that producing multimedia digital content required expensive equipment and deep levels of technical expertise. We are at the point now where anyone can create and publish very compelling content with nothing more complex than a web browser. The point is not that these are professional level production tools, but that the barrier of entry to content creation can be drastically low. And you should find a new mode of creativity when the tool have some limits as to what they can do-- and find that the core of the story is much more important than a widget."

Edmodo recently released a new look for their website. Many times when a website changes there's a ton of confusion about old features, new feature, and where everything is now located. Not with Edmodo! The simple and clear design makes it easy to navigate between all of the tools. So there shouldn't be too much confusion for existing users, and teachers who want to learn how to use Edmodo for the first time are met with a sleek and simple interface. Here are a few videos on how to navigate the new Edmodo site, and how to use the basic features for anyone interested in learning to use Edmodo in the classroom.

Dropbox is one of the most popular cloud based platforms for hosting and sharing files. Like Google Drive, Dropbox offers a decent free storage space to start with and there is also the possibility to buy more storage capacity. Unless it is a Google doc or presentation, I always save my PDFs and other documents to Dropbox. What I like the most about this tool is its syncing capacities which are way faster than Google Drive. You can upload a PDF on your desktop and access it instantly on your Dropbox account  in iPad.

Great diagnostic tool for looking at who has access to your files and folders in Google Drive.

A collection of applications placed into Bloom's taxonomy.

"Sound Infusion is a unique learning tool that incorporates music and culture from all over the world."

A good introduction to the different social media formats, including Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and Instagram. Induces discussion of what each provides.

A great discussion of Danah Boyd's book 'It's Complicated' and the need for teens to connect.

A great summary of how to go about doing research online from Chris Betcher.

Visual images to use in classroom. Especially useful for ESL or SEN students and as behaviour management tool.

Graded according to year level. Mainly for Literacy and Numeracy but all subjects covered. Tutorials, videos, interactive activities, assessments, worksheets.

Used by over 70,000 teachers & 1 million students at home and school. Studyladder is an online english literacy & mathematics learning tool. Kids activity games, worksheets and lesson plans for Primary and Junior High School students in Australia.

Google Earth lets you fly anywhere on Earth to view satellite imagery, maps, terrain, 3D buildings, from galaxies in outer space to the canyons of the ocean. You can explore rich geographical content, save your toured places, and share with others.

Anatomy Arcade makes basic human anatomy come ALIVE through awesome games, interactives and videos. Awesome tool for any PE theory lessons or anatomy activities.