Editor’s note: Guest contributor Nancy Barlow regularly blogs at The Teacher Geek. You can follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

Audacity's Wiki Offer Useful Tips and Tricks

If you are a regular user of the audio recording software Audacity, or if you'd like to get started with it, check out the Audacity Wiki first. It offers a "Getting Started" and "Troubleshooting" Guides, as well as advanced user tips and tutorials. If you need some ideas on how you can use a tool like Audacity in the classroom, check out Keri Lee Beasley's "Ten Great Ways To Use Audacity With Your Students" and this expansive comment thread from Classroom 2.0. You'll be ready to make your first recording in no time.

The iPad Changes the Science Classroom

The Tech Tools 4 Teaching Blog has a roundup of several ways that iPads can enhance a science classroom. The blog discusses how inquiry-based teaching in Earth Sciences is particularly challenging, because there's no way to experience, for example, a live earthquake. However, with certain apps available to the iPad and other tablet devices, students can learn though animated diagrams, videos, overlays, real-time data and other means that would not have been accessible just a few years ago. Something to be thankful for, indeed.

Classroom Management in the Computer Lab

Often, the biggest hurdle to using technology in the classroom isn't the tech tools, but rather the management of the students using the tools. The latest and greatest tech tools are not going to help your students if you do not have basic classroom management and routines down pat. The Cornerstone Blog for Teachers offers super helpful advice for setting up and managing lessons in a computer lab. Even if your students work on a mobile lab, you'll find helpful tips to make the best use of your technology time with any technology device.

App Of the Week: History: Maps of the World

This resourceful and *free* app is a must for every social studies and history student. Instead having to access bulky atlases and oversized archival maps, History: Maps of the World puts them at your fingertips. Zoom in/out, and search by keyword. There are maps for many different eras, all with the sources listed. Find it free at the iTunes store for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch.