Del.icio.us, diigo, slideshare, mind-mapping tools...OH MY!!! What are all these things??

Every week I am learning something new. The learning never stops. All things online are extremely interesting and cool, and every day I am finding out that there are more and more of them. Diigo is cool because I can highlight something that I feel is important in an online document. Instead of wondering where the important fact was, I can highlight and know exactly where it is when i need to go back and reference it. It is also a wonderful way to create groups for a project where every member can log on and discuss important things about the assignment. This is another thing I will use in my future and help educate my students on about collaborating with peers. Mind Mapping tools are real cool. I had a great time creating my own MM this week. It can be on and about anything, and will definitely use this with my students. They can create an "About Me" MM where they put information about them in it, what they like, dislike, etc... It is a great icebreaker to use in the beginning of the year. Del.icio.us is another great online tool. Here, students can exchange websites and get feedback from peers. If a students is searching online for something, he/she can narrow the search on del.icio.us and make the process not as arduous and time consuming. I tried registering for it, and had some trouble and had no idea where to go for help. That was the only downfall about it. Due to this, I could not set up an account because I kept running into many problems with the website. Postings seem to be very simple, from what i read from the link from class, and does appear to be quite easy to use. The final tool is called slideshare. The sign up was quick and easy, as with most others we had to do for this class. I think it is neat to upload slide shows to share online with peers and friends, or whomever. Again, all of these are great social and educational networks for students (and teachers) to advance technological knowledge and further learning. I hope to become more familiar with them all to successfully implement them in my classroom one day.