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" What amazed me most about Classtools.net was not the valuable tools provided, but the ability for teachers to easily customize these tools and use them in any subject area. If that is not enough, how about the ability to embed your newly made instructional resource on your own classroom website, wiki, or blog? Any educator will also like the fact that students have no need to log in or sign up for an account… and neither do teachers! Need tutorials… they are provided! Do samples help you understand better… you will find plenty! Is budget a problem… then free should be affordable! Classtools.net is the work of educator, Russel Tarr, Head of History at the International School of Toulouse, France. Upon entering the site, educators will see the listing of tools. Clicking on a tool allows teachers to individualize that specific tool for their own classroom needs. Teachers then have the option of copying a generated link to place on their own web site or of copying a generated code to embed as a tool (widget) on their classroom site. Also, on the front page, are some video links that will provide further information. Two videos that provide excellent information are the 1 Minute Overview and How to Create Games. The Listing Of Over 20 Digital Tools For Your Classroom The tools that you can even customize are included below. Along with this tool listing you will find descriptions of each tool, an overview of and samples of specific tools (if provided), and any related video (if provided). * Arcade Game Generator - Allows teachers to create concept builders, practice exercises, and reviews. Best of all, one set up feeds into five different game possibilities at the same time The teacher can choose which game, or allow students a choice. Make sure you check out all the examples and pre-made games in (overview and samples). Also watch the How to Create Games . * Random Name Picker - Can be used as an activity management tool or skip the names.

"Help your students get the skills they need The 21st Century Learning Design (21CLD) rubrics provide a research-based methodology to help you identify how to evolve your lesson plans and learning activities to build and assess your students' 21st century skills. "

article on ideas that support our 21st Century learners.

"4 Features to Look for in a 21st Century LMS Two districts share their experiences of choosing a learning management system that does a lot more than help teachers post assignments."

"Our nation suffers from 19th century thinking when it comes to preparing educators for the increasingly collaborative work of teaching and learning. Many outstanding programs have been established to push education forward, but short of a few largely for-profit corporate efforts to recognize educators using digital tools effectively; there remains no consistently recognized way for these leading educators to certify themselves as 21st Century professionals. Leading Edge Certification is that certification. Created through an alliance of nonprofits, universities and educational agencies, the certification will provide five different roles over the course of five years."

ISTE standards for emerging technologies

"Creating a presentation or slideshow is a staple of any 21st Century Classroom and a skill that every successful educator has and every successful student should learn.  It used to be that only programs such as PowerPoint could create presentations.  However, now there are lots of sites and apps that not only create stunning presentations but also make it easier then ever. Below is my list of some of my favorite tools for creating beautiful-looking presentations and slideshows. This list is in alphabetical order. "

"NEW HOW-TO-DO-IT MANUAL HELPS SCHOOLS AND DISTRICTS AVOID COPYRIGHT PROBLEMS Tuesday, Mar 10 2009 General Announcements Laura 3:47 am Provides essential guidelines for creating, enforcing and maintaining copyright compliance in the 21st century "

Jane Good, a teacher with 21st Century Virtual Academy, works from her home in Thornton, Colo. on Jan. 11, 2012. Nick Pandolfo Teacher Jane Good hurries around her kitchen on a recent morning in her Denver suburb, preparing breakfast in what will serve as her work attire for the day: black exercise pants, a black, long-sleeved running shirt and white slipper booties. "

"Best Practices in Online Learning Posted June 26, 2012 in Online Learning From David Evans A recent Time magazine article, "The Teacher You've Never Met: Inside an Online High School Class," profiled Jane Good, one of Colorado's 21st Century Virtual Academy K-12 teachers. As a teacher who only sees her students' hands raised through buttons clicked on a screen and will never be able to tell if a student has dozed off on his or her desk, Good realizes that there are effective and ineffective practices for teaching in an online classroom."

"The Open High School of Utah is putting the focus where it should be - on the student. Our mission is to facilitate lifelong success by meeting the needs of the 21st century learner through individualized, student-centered instruction, innovative technology, service learning, and personal responsibility. "

"f you've got school-age kids, you know when they're working on reading and math. But if their homework includes loops, goto commands, and branches, don't be alarmed. They're probably learning to code, and that's a very good thing. From Code.org's Hour of Code to coding camps and afterschool classes, computer programming is hot -- and, in a technology-fueled world that's only going to grow, coding is an invaluable 21st-century skill."

If you are a parent, teacher, or other adult working with children, this blog aims to help you learn, as much as possible, about helping digital kids grow into thoughtful, collaborative, and savvy digital citizens. The blog's mission is to provide context for adults - defining and clarifying digital world issues, 21st Century learning challenges, and those virtual environments and devices that children take for granted.

""Digital citizenship is a worthy endeavor, and it is also the law. California AB 307 requires district technology plans to 'include a component to educate pupils and teachers on the appropriate and ethical use of information technology in the classroom.' Governor Arnold Scharzenegger's Executive Order S-06-09 established a California ICT Digital Literacy initiative, asserting that 'it is an important goal to ensure that California residents are digitally literate.' Similarly, the federal S 1492 Broadband Data Improvement Act (Public Law 110-385), also titled Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act, mandates that all schools receiving e-rate discounts must teach students "about appropriate online behavior, including interacting with other individuals on social networking sites and in chat rooms and cyberbullying awareness and response." Quoted from Digital Citizen, Farmer and Siminitus."

21st Century ideas to help facilitate good teaching and learning.

This site, "dedicated to the idea that information will be the raw material that drives the 21st century, and that today's students should be learning to build with information," offers free Web tools for integrating the Internet into the curriculum in a meaningful way. The tools include a rubric maker, citation machine, permission template, and digital index card, as well as Web site and WebQuest creators.

We often read that there are 4 C's in a true 21st century education: critical thinking and problem solving, communication, collaboration, and creativity and innovation. The iPad is a success at engaging individual students in critical thinking and creativity, but how about collaboration? After all, tablets are consumer products, designed to be used by one person at a time, not by teams of students. It's up to teachers and instructional technologists to figure out how best to deploy them in the classroom in a way that supports project-based learning and fosters teamwork. We asked several teachers involved in iPad initiatives which apps they've had the most success with on the collaboration front. Here is what they told us.

"MaKey MaKey is an invention kit for the 21st century. Turn everyday objects into touchpads and combine them with the internet. It's a simple Invention Kit for Beginners and Experts doing art, engineering, and everything inbetween: "

"MaKey MaKey is an invention kit for the 21st century. Turn everyday objects into touchpads and combine them with the internet. It's a simple Invention Kit for Beginners and Experts doing art, engineering, and everything inbetween: "

"Project Tomorrow is a national education nonprofit group based in Irvine, California. The vision of Project Tomorrow is ensure that today's students are well prepared to be tomorrow's innovators, leaders and engaged citizens of the world. We believe that by supporting the innovative uses of science, math and technology resources in our K-12 schools and communities, students will develop the critical thinking, problem solving and creativity skills needed to compete and thrive in the 21st century. "