Do you spend some of your summer time on technology?

 I  hope that your summer break is wonderful and by now you feel a little bored and ready to browse the web for something new and extraordinary to use next school year...

From my experience, first days of vacations are usually a prelude to a productive professional time. It is a time for preparation, building plans, accomplishments, and dreaming big visions. First days devoted to passions like reading, swimming, hiking, touring, and spending time with the family, children and grandchildren, (add here yours) awake our professional desires and cause a thirst for new challenges.

In the age of technology integration, the problem of finding time becomes more acute than ever. Teachers can't teach the way they taught. The new generation of digital natives requires them to use technology in classroom to prepare them for future, like in this song by Kevin Honeycutt:

Technology becomes an essential factor that defines students' success in learning. Appying technology tools to education puts subject contents into a new perspective and helps teachers present their material the way kids better understand and learn . That is why to spend some summer time on learning about web 2.0 tools and on the list of the links describing the use of technology in education is worthy.

Last year proved (and you see some examples on the WBAIS staff ningNing, Tech & Learning @409 Group and AIS-sharing wiki) that for many teachers technology is an excitement. At the same time, for some technology still stays a fright,  and not because they don't like it or don't want to use it in their class. In many cases the problem is a lack of time teachers experience during the school year. A good news is that it can be gained during the summer!

Below is the list of the sites that bring technology into focus: they talk about tech tools, web resources, practical ideas how to use these tools, and alike. Feel free to add the sites you consider beneficial to the AIS-sharing wiki or say about them in the ning.

TeachersFirst.com - a collection of lessons, units, and web resources; professional and classroom-ready content along with thousands of reviewed web resources, including practical ideas for classroom use and safe classroom use of Web 2.0.

Teaching and Learning (Apple Interchange)
It's said that curriculum must support active, authentic, and engaged learning, leveraging technology innovations that profoundly affect our daily lives, but what are the ways to apply these principals into practice? Apple Interchange presents their view on the classroom of tomorrow and in the Challenge Based Learning document describes what collaborative and hands-on learning should be. Read about this method and see some examples of challenge based learning units and integrated technology into their core curriculum. Other sections of the Apple Learning Interchange are of interest to teachers. Check it out.

Free Technology for Teachers is one of the best individual blogs recognized in 2009.

Summer break is a good time to join  a professional learning network (PLN) on Twitter. Twitter is a very popular source to share ideas and sources with other educators. You can join Edchat - a Twitter channel that provides professional discussions twice a week. Set up a free Twitter account and type #edchat into a search window at the appointed time each Tuesday. Use your opportunity while you are in the states and you don't need to stay overnight to get connected because of the time difference. These blogs will help you appreciate Twitter: Blogging About the Web 2.0 Connected Classroom by Steven W. Anderson and Teaching Around With Web 2.0

Sites to build vocabulary, to learn about words or make up your own - 50 Coolest Online Tools for Word Nerds by Kathrin Rives.

EdTech 21. Topics, Tools, and Skills for the 21st Century

Credits: picture cflparents.org