4 guys talking suggest best ways to implement (pd) tech tools

courtesy of mcleod’s dangerously irrelevant – i listened to four guys talking episode 4. (the state of maine’s laptop adventures)
my biggest take away from that was their recommendation for pd – for implementing tech.
what i got from it was that rather than overwhelm teachers with a barrage of tech tools – that change daily – and shouldn’t be the focus anyway – what we should be doing is having discussions centered around – what are your biggest challenges in the classroom. once we identify biggest challenges (ie: when we work with fractions my kids zone out) – then we suggest 3-5 tech tools/techniques that would help that challenge.

so my request – i would love to see a list generated of – biggest challenges in the classroom – combined with tech tools/techniques that address them best.

for instance:

challenge: my kids lose focus on what we are doing when we convert radians to degrees and they have to reduce the fraction
tech tool: key stroke on calculator to change decimal to fraction; etc

challenge: my kids get lost in the shuffle of research, how can i help them focus
tech tool: google squared (with guidelines of how to edit/etc)

challenge: my kids need visuals for exponential functions
tech tool: wolfram; etc

challenge: my kids have the 5 paragraph format down, but their writing stinks
tech tool: blog free form and be amazed at the thought processes and creativity they are capable of; etc

i think it would be huge to a lot of teachers, especially to ones feeling overwhelmed to learn many new tech tools. they would just learn them on a needs basis. focus is back on the subject they teach.

i wasn't sure if this should go under - feedback needed - or - review of software tools. i was thinking/hoping - if i put it here - some of you tech geeks would come up with a good format to start this list.