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could be useful as we talk to our students about digital citizenship, copyright and using creative commons

I had the wonderful app-ortunity to make a site visit to Westlake H.S. in Eanes ISD on Wednesday February 1st. When we arrived, various campus and district officials shared some background on the student-centered learning initiative. They focused on multiple benefits of the 1:1 iPad initiative where high school seniors were issued iPads like textbooks at the beginning of the year. In a time where global communication, inquiry-based opportunities, and self-directed learning is how students manage the information revolution, it was refreshing to get to observe an iLearning Utopia.

If we are feeling distracted, we should pay attention to that distraction.  It may be telling us that there is something better elsewhere, something more deserving of our attention.  Or it may be telling us we are on the wrong path, just when we thought we were zooming in to that perfect conclusion of a paragraph or a project.   Or it may be telling us we need better tools, that the set-up we have is not fully appreciating the particularities and peccadilloes of our own work life and demands.  Or it may be telling us that we need better partners, or a better method, someone or something to help us over the hurdle.  Or it may just be telling us we are working too hard and we need to put down what we are doing and go outside for a walk, or stop for a cup of tea, or go for a run, or maybe just check out Facebook for a while.  Distraction is our friend because it reminds us that we are fully human, not just workers, and that our lives are complex and, trying to shut out the complexity, may in fact turn out to be the least productive way to lead a life.

Word Walls are an effective strategy for building vocabulary with students, especially for subject-specific terms. These lists are usually posted on classroom walls and sometimes have a definition attached to them. A more interactive word wall that includes images requires students to be more active learners as they attach meaning to each of the words in the list. Teachers may post these in the classroom after first using them as teaching tools when introducing a concept.

Discover the tools and techniques today's teachers and classrooms are using to prepare students for tomorrow -- and how you can get involved. What should collaboration, creativity, communication, and critical thinking look like in a modern classroom? How can parents help educators accomplish their goals? 

Not only does the iPad provide a pivotal tool for effective and engaging group teaching and learning, it has the potential to promote literacy and reading in an innovative and exciting fashion.

Great site for making professional looking Infographics. Ooh, I'm excited about this!

Make gorgeous visuals with this tool

Great for people with dyslexia, this tool adds gradient to words/lines of text to help with the issue of accidentally skipping a line.

Collaborative tool for designers - how cool is that?

Visual interactive display of the size and scale of cells -- with the starting point the "large" coffee bean (12 x 8 mm).....\nOne page of a broader educational website from the Univ of Utah, Genetic Science Learning Center -- other pages are definitely middle/secondary school (if not univ) level...\n<

"The main YIS website is, and will continue to be, a place to display important information about the school. The learning hub is different, it is a collaborative space intended to host communication and dialogue. Therefore at the centre of the learning hub are the students' own individual websites . These websites are a place for the students to host their projects and ideas. They serve as weblogs (blogs) and digital portfolios. The students will design and adapt their own sites to suit these different functions and will be encouraged to explore and experiment with a variety of digital tools as this project develops."

lesson to demonstrate the value of rapid prototyping and provide designers with a tool for prototyping that is easy to use and allows quick iteration

"Welcome to "Googlios" where free Google tools meet ePortfolios.   This site is intended to be a collection of resources for those interested in using ePortfolios in Education. "

"Welcome to Kids Around the World! This site will introduce your students to the lives, customs, and cultures of children in countries throughout the developing world. There are a lot of ways you can use Kids Around the World in the classroom! Explore the site yourself to get an idea of how you want to use it in your curriculum. The lesson plans provided are excellent tools to get you started. They include activities for Grades K"

"TechTrain 2011: Beginners Learning Technology Tools Together"