Another of the "X in Plain English" series.

 This video will take you through the benefits of and how to use social bookmarking tools. Sharing bookmarks is something that I don't do much, but it would be invaluable for educators.

 Social networking is what you call MySpace and Facebook and others. This video can explain it better than I can.

 We talked about wikis today, but this will explain it a bit better - and even show you how to use them.

 RSS is the technical name for one type of 'feed' - the technology that allows you to pull info from one site to another all automatically.

That said, there is something "social networky" that unites these otherwise-dissimilar "social networking" sites. The two features that seem to define the social network aspect of a product are:

1. Some kind of page or profile for each user. The contents of this page vary wildly, but it always includes a name and often a picture.
   
   
2. "Friend" links among the profile pages, which may or may not be bi-directional. These "friends" only sometimes correspond to real-life friends.

 This page by Paul Buchheit has an overview of some of the elements you might find in 'Social Networking' sites. It's got a few buzz words in it, but it might help explain a bit about what is and isn't social networking.

 Tim Davies has created a series of one page introductions to various online websites and concepts including Flickr, social bookmarking and RSS.

 These are the education technology blogs I'm subscribed to. I don't really read them any more, but you might find some useful info in them. They include teachers that blog, use wikis and encourage kids to use technolgy in the classroom.

Welcome to EduWikipedia.

The site where educators can collaborate to share the best-of-the-best of educational Web 2.0 Tools! A place to cultivate a network of like-minded educators that are dedicated to harnessing the educational value of Web 2.0 tools This is a site created by educators for educators

 It's a bunch of "web 2.0" resources! It's a wiki! It's a bunch of other buzz words! But it's really helpful!

 This article is not only a great start on wikis, but it's on a school library technology site! Have fun reading.

 A game to teach kids how to search for answers more effectively.

Lifehacker has an article on evaluating how accurate your web resources are. Could be reworked and incorporated into classes on online research.

 GTD (Getting Things Done) is a system by David Allen for... getting things done. It's a way to make yourself more productive by collecting everything you need to do in one place and focussing your energy on one thing at a time in short bursts. It can be incredibly geeky, but enormously rewarding (so I hear). This page can help your students learn GTD.

 A site dedicated to the use of Interactive Whiteboards in Australian classrooms.

 A Scholatic page that includes Library Technology stuff.

 Just ONE of the many sites that encourage you to read, write reviews and share your thoughts. There are tons of others, but this was first in Google.

 Wow! Scholastic DOES have a book review tool - for kids.

What is Elgg?

Described by its founders as a 'learning landscape', Elgg provides each user with their own weblog, file repository (with podcasting capabilities), an online profile and an RSS reader. Additionally, all of a user's content can be tagged with keywords - so they can connect with other users with similar interests and create their own personal learning network. However, where Elgg differs from a regular weblog or a commercial social network (such as MySpace) is the degree of control each user is given over who can access their content. Each profile item, blog post, or uploaded file can be assigned its own access restrictions - from fully public, to only readable by a particular group or individual.

 Elgg is free social networking software you can install on your school intranet or an external facing website. Students can create pages, upload work, download files and fill out their profile, but remain 'safe' from sites like MySpace and Facebook.

 This Google Notebook introduction page will show you how you can make a page like I've made for you with Google Notebook.

 Google encourages teachers to use their tools in schools - this page will help you figure out if they have anything useful to offer.