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"As instructors, we are all information curators. How do you collect and share currently relevant content with your students? How do your students research and share information that they find with the rest of class? What tools do you use to manage or facilitate presentation of resources? Is it public? Can students access it at other times? In groups?"

An introduction to building your own blog, plus how to link it to Twitter.

How to Create an eBook with Google Slides https://t.co/3AhoHC3kpd #gafe #goo… https://t.co/MSJnN63vwj

They may look like jumbled and messy flowcharts for the insane, but mind maps are actually extremely useful and perfect tools for brainstorming. You essentially take a flow of ideas and translate them into interconnected webs designed to help clarify your thinking (or mind, as it were). I love mind maps and am always impressed at the amount of care that goes into the creation of one. They truly resemble the crazy way our brains work as we link together somewhat illogical thoughts to form a cohesive idea. In other words, these following mind maps are actually how are brains all work whether you like it or not. There are thousands of mind maps out there and even some snazzy tools to help you make your own. The following maps are some of my favorites and hopefully won't scare you too much. Hopefully they'll inspire and educate!

Google is usually one of the first places students turn to when tasked with an assignment. Whether it's for research, real-time results, or just a little digital exploration … it's important they know how to properly Google. Lucky for teachers (and students, of course), Google has a handy set of lesson plans that are just waiting to be unleashed upon the leaders of tomorrow.

"Yesterday while we were working on the post entitled 5 Great Learning Tools for students and as we reviewed EasyBib, we decided to include here a post that would feature a list of some important bibliography and citation tools. As teachers and educators, you know how hard students struggle to properly use a quote, citation, or list bibliography items. This is even more serious when it comes to writing formal research papers."

Teachers are presenters. Let's be frank. They get up in front of a room of people and present. They then encourage the students to work together and continue the presentation through other methods. in other words, teachers need to know how to present and create slideshows. If you've been hunting around for a few free presentation tools for teachers, then you're in luck.

When most of us think of Pinterest, we probably think about a bunch of young people sharing links to web pages, photos and videos with their friends. It is just another social network for people to show off what is going on in their lives, such as a recent crush, an outstanding outfit that has just been purchased, or a fresh new look. But how often do we consider Pinterest as a tool to aid in teaching and learning? Here are a few ways in which Pinterest can play role in class.

Google Forms isn't the first thing you think of when you think of assessment. It's not especially elegant, it won't wow students, and the learning curve isn't as mild as it might be. But with a little bit of work on the front-end, Google Forms can return the favor in spades on the back-end in the form of self-grading assessments. While there isn't an app (yet) that can uncover the true nuance of understanding, if you're using multiple-choice assessments-even just as pre and summative assessments-this trick can save you time, allowing the real potential of assessment to shine through in consistently extracting data to revise planned instruction.

It is important to realize the implications for our students of our own critical reflection. Students put great store by our actions and they learn a great deal from observing how we model intellectual inquiry and democratic process. Given that this is so, a critically reflective teacher activates her classroom by providing a model of passionate skepticism. As Osterman (1990) comments, "critically reflective teachers - teachers who make their own thinking public, and therefore subject to discussion - are more likely to have classes that are challenging, interesting, and stimulating for students" (p. 139). Stephen Brookfield

"Bring your own device" (BYOD) initiatives are relatively new in education, cropping up in the last few years as schools-under tight budget constraints-seek ways to leverage student-owned devices for learning. Supporters of the BYOD movement say students are instantly more attentive and better behaved when they are encouraged to use their own mobile devices in the classroom, but educators face a number of challenges in making BYOD work in their schools.

For students there are two distinct benefits of using Evernote. First, bookmarking online with annotations helps students not only keep track of websites they find useful while researching, it also helps them remember why they bookmarked a site. There's nothing worse that looking at your bookmarks a week or two later and wondering what it was about a website that prompted you to bookmark it. Second, by writing course notes in Evernote students can access their notes from any device that is connected to the web.

"Produced in collaboration with Facebook. Social media is fast becoming as ubiquitous as the air we breathe. In recent months, many schools and districts around the country have taken steps to create social media policies and guidelines for their students and staff. In my work with several districts to draft these documents, I have seen many approaches that work well, and some that don't. That said, there is no silver bullet for administrators; every school, district, and state has a different set of circumstances. With that in mind, here are some steps that will help you determine the best approach for your own community."

YouTube can be a great technological resource for teachers to use in the classroom. But with so many videos and channels, how can educators find quality content without watching hours of video? Here are ten great channels that are certain to provide educational content worthy to spark student's minds.

"This solution needs the student to configure their calendar for SMS notifications and not all mobile operators are supported, but I will show how to make this work and you can decide if its worth the effort."

This add-in enables you to embed a Creative Commons license into a document that you create using Microsoft Office Word, Microsoft Office PowerPoint, or Microsoft Office Excel. With a Creative Commons license, authors can express their intentions regarding how their works may be used by others. The add-in downloads the Creative Commons license you designate from the Creative Commons Web site and inserts it directly into your creative work.To learn more about Creative Commons, please visit its web site, www.creativecommons.org. To learn more about the choices among the Creative Commons licenses, see http://creativecommons.org/about/licenses/meet-the-licenses.

We love this document that Mark Anderson has produced for a training day at his school in North Somerset, UK. It succinctly provides the name of Web2.0 tools and gives you examples of how to use them. From our experience teachers did need quick, easy and fast ways to connect to new technology ideas. We think Mark achieves this very well!

Today, if you don't show up in Google, you don't exist. Whether you are applying for a new job, being considered for a board position or trying to get a date, you can count on being Googled. So knowing what Google says about you and proactively managing your personal brand online is critical to success. Our Online ID Calculator‚™ is the first and leading tool that will help you make sense of your Google results and give you advice on how to build a stellar online identity that's aligned with your real-world personal brand.

"If you can't measure it, you can't manage it" said Peter Drucker a long time ago. With TweetStats, you have a powerful tool to measure all your Twitter behavior in one place. It shows you your Tweet timeline to understand how much you are Tweeting each day and each month. It also dives deep into analyzing your best times to Tweet via a Tweet Density report and follower comparisons. Pro Tip: What I like best is the @reply and Retweet analysis. It gives you a clear picture if you hit the right balance of engagement and content Tweets."  http://blog.kissmetrics.com/transform-your-tweeting-experience/