Geek's guide to teaching in the modern age; So you're not tech savvy? That's okay. We snuck a page from the computer guy's handbook and found this: the nine tricks every teacher really needs to know.

#1 Know how to play and make podcasts

Podcast: It just sounds like a word from the future, doesn't it? But to kids, it's very much right now. Thanks to the ubiquitous iPod, tweens and grown-ups--and everyone in-between--are recording audio, visual, and video content and broadcasting it over a network for download.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Beyond the coolness factor, what makes podcasts a classroom must? The opportunity for anytime, anywhere learning. Teachers can record lectures. Students can podcast a poetry jam, says Amy Wright, acting director of communication and technology at The School at Columbia University in New York. A Spanish teacher at Wright's school, Madeleine Polinsky, regularly podcasts new vocabulary with pictures. Plus, it's easy on your wallet: Subscribing to a podcast is free.

Get started by reading up at www.apple.com/education/solutions. And check out Senorita Polinsky's podcasts by searching her name in Apple's iTunes store. With Apple's newly released iLife 06, podcasting has become even easier: It's now integrated into GarageBand and iWeb, an Internet publishing program. So students can download your directions for the big social studies project and place them right in between Britney and Green Day.

#2 Know how to blog

Whether you want to blow off steam about parent conferences or share your kids' dolphin project with the world, a blog, or Web journal, is a convenient venue for publishing anything that's on your mind (and then receiving feedback).

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

With a blog you can post homework, extend conversations, and keep parents in the loop, says Will Richardson, tech supervisor at Hunterdon Central Regional High School in Flemington, New Jersey, and the man behind www.weblogg-ed.com, a site that advocates the use of blogs in the classroom.

The best first step for would-be teacher bloggers? Reading other classroom blogs (find them at www.technorati.com, a blogs-only search engine). Then head to www.blogmeister.com or www.tblog.com to start your own free journal.

#3 Know how to send an e-mail to 30 parents

At last ... the backpack's reign as Communications Coordinator is over. Thank goodness! While not all families have Web access (something to consider before going totally paperless), it's now often easier to stay in touch via e-mail.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Make it simpler by creating a distribution list, suggests Jane Lierman, Instructor advisor and teacher in Lake Oswego, Oregon. That way you only type "Fifth Grade Families" instead of thirty e-mail addresses every time you want to send off a newsletter. (Don't know how to do this? Check out the "Help" section of your e-mail program--it's easy.)

The unexpected bonus of plugging in with parents? E-mailing creates a paperless record of all your communication, so there's no need to keep track of--and decipher--a bunch of scribbled Post-its.

#4 Know how to wiki 

No, this isn't the latest dance-floor craze. A wiki is a Web site that allows readers to add and edit content. It works like a communal, beyond-the-Brittanica encyclopedia. Check it out for yourself at www.wikipedia.com.

You can set up a wiki on any topic kids are studying, says Amy Wright. Both www.pbwiki.com and www.wikispaces.com offer free accounts.

Clarence Fisher, a middle school teacher in Northern Manitoba, Canada, had his students create a wiki about ancient Egypt. It served as a (more interesting) textbook to their social studies unit.

#5 Know how to take great photos

Hold that pose. Kids love photos and movies (especially of themselves). Why not capitalize on that fascination?

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Use a digital camera to collect evidence in science or document History Day speeches, suggests Gigi Carlson, author of Digital Media in the Classroom. Capturing those moments enables kids to look later for patterns and deduce conclusions from their work, she adds. Visit The Literacy through Photography Project (http://cds.aas.duke.edu) for specific lesson plans and ideas.

Or don your Spielberg hat and try your hand at moviemaking. Movies allow kids to express creativity, learn about sequencing, and help generate words from images, says Carlson. She recommends Apple's iMovie for the classroom. Learn more at www.apple.com/education.

#6 Know how to find the best Web sites

Graded a president report or two where students attributed "Ask not what you can do for your country" to Abraham Lincoln? It's time to teach kids how to tell credible sites from crummy ones.

This means helping them to decode site addresses, says Alan November, author of Empowering Students with Technology. An address ending in .com is commercial, .org is non-profit, .net is a network, and .gov is a government agency. A tilde (~) is a clue that it's a personal posting that may not be endorsed by the main host.

Common sense works, too: If a site looks amateurish (think all caps or 10,000 winking smiley faces) it probably is.

#7 Know what all the remote buttons do

Or at least the closed-captioning button. Next time you pop in a video, turn on the captions and see comprehension skyrocket. Why? Research shows that technology that's traditionally been used for the deaf or vision-impaired can help all kids learn to read.

Helen Hoffner, associate professor of education at Holy Family University in Philadelphia, suggests turning on closed captioning so emerging readers can see the words on the screen as they hear them. Also, descriptive video (used by people with vision impairments) provides additional narration that can help expand the vocabulary of students.

Elementary teacher Tara Holdsworth of Philadelphia showed the beginning segment of the Lion King to third and fifth graders who were working on adding vivid language to their writing. She asked them to write a paragraph to describe the sequence. Then, she showed them the same segment with descriptive video added and asked them to write another paragraph. "They used more adjectives in their writing because they were trying to be concrete. It helped them paint the picture," says Holdsworth.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

#8 Know how to spend PD hours

You'd love to pump up your technology skills, but can't find the time. Sound familiar? How about getting a teaching boost while in your pajamas with a cup of tea?

Clarence Fisher, the teacher from Northern Manitoba, is about two hours from any other school. But he touches base with other teachers through his blog and takes courses online. "Having a professional blog has opened me up to the world." He uses it to tap advice from other teachers. He also finished his master's by taking classes online through the University of Alberta.

You don't necessarily have to pay for an online course. Check out Moodle (www.moodle.org), a free software package for producing Internet-based courses and Web sites. Experts suggest finding courses that are interactive and provide feedback quickly to keep you engaged.

#9 Know how to call Australia for free

Want to hook up with a classroom overseas? Ditch the postage stamps and make a free phone call using Voiceover Internet Protocol (VoIP) and a software program such as Gizmo (www.gizmoproject.com). It's easy, and if you have a webcam and an application such as Skype (www.skype.com) or iChat AV, you can also watch each other as you talk. Amy Wright of The School at Columbia University recommends iChat AV, because it allows you access to three large online instant messaging communities as well. Go to www.apple.com/macosx/features/ichat to learn more.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Arana Shapiro, a colleague of Wright's, uses iChat AV with her seventh-grade students in an after-school television production class. The kids have interviewed other students in Germany and California to learn how schools are different and the same all over the world. "The kids really got into being able the see the faces of the other kids--they really connected," says Shapiro. And those connections are what this modern age is all about.