The many uses of Google Earth and Google Maps never ceases to impress me. But a lot of people hear the words Google Earth or Google Maps and only think about locating places and not all of the other things that can be done with these great tools. Google's site for UK schools has some great lesson plans for using Google Earth and Google Maps with primary school and secondary school students. (The equivalent in the US is elementary school and middle school).

Mapping the Gulf oil spill in Google Earth 5/04/2010 09:03:00 PM Two weeks ago, there was a fatal explosion on the offshore oil rig Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico. The rig sank shortly afterwards, and since then the well has been leaking crude oil into the Gulf, spreading an oil slick towards the U.S. Gulf Coast. This spill is pouring as many as 5,000 barrels (210,000 gallons) of oil a day into the Gulf and poses a serious threat to coastal industries, sensitive h

simple but think it might help

Facebook's Eroding Privacy Policy: A Timeline Commentary by Kurt Opsahl Since its incorporation just over five years ago, Facebook has undergone a remarkable transformation. When it started, it was a private space for communication with a group of your choice. Soon, it transformed into a platform where much of your information is public by default. Today, it has become a platform where you have no choice but to make certain information public, and this public information may be shared by Facebook with its partner websites and used to target ads.

Consumer Reports, a longtime trusted name in product ratings and reviews, has today released its annual "State of the Net" report, which finds that over half (52%) of social network users post risky information online. Among the transgressions: using weak passwords, listing full birth dates, ignoring privacy settings and making mention of when you're away from home, to name a few.

CW Search is a search engine dedicated to increasing access to the information found in the best free university courses online. Several universities publish their course materials for free online, under the OpenCourseWare (OCW) initiative, as described on the OpenCourseWare Consortium website. OCW Search is an independent search engine that indexes all these courses so you can find these courses faster.

 It is possible to use social media in such a way as to enhance the learning environment, and to provide an education. Here are 13 case studies that show that social media does have a place in the classroom::

Ever wanted to make presentations a more interactive, Web 2.0 experience?The PowerPoint Twitter Tools prototypes are now available. Created using SAP BusinessObjects Xcelsius (but requiring only PowerPoint for Windows and Adobe Flash to run), the twitter tools allow presenters to see and react to tweets in real-time, embedded directly within their presentations, either as a ticker or refreshable comment page.

The driving force behind the Web 2.0 revolution is a spirit of intellectual philanthropy and collective intelligence that is made possible by new technologies for communication, collaboration and information management.  One of the best examples of collective intelligence in action are the wide range of social bookmarking applications that have been embraced in recent years.

Creating a tour in Google Earth

Facebook®, wikis, blogs and a host of other technology-based tools are transforming the ways that citizens interact with others and with government. Indeed, technology is transforming our democracy. How do we begin to understand this transformation and to find ways for colleges and universities to use these tools to prepare informed, engaged citizens.

For almost a century, presidents and members of Congress have tried and failed to provide universal health benefits to Americans. On March 23, 2010, after a year of epic debate between Republicans and Democrats, President Obama signed legislation into law that will remake the nation's health care system. 

Web 2.0 tools indexed and categorized by key topics

Jamendo is a community of free, legal and unlimited music published under Creative Commons licenses. Share your music, download your favorite artists!

Great overview of PBL

Free Studio is a single package which bundles all free software from DVDVideoSoft to work with DVD, video and audio files! With this free software you can convert video and audio files between different formats and to iPod, PSP, iPhone, BlackBerry and other portable devices; burn and rip DVDs and audio CDs; upload and download videos and music to your computer, iPod, PSP, iPhone and BlackBerry; perform basic editing of audio and video files.

Finally,  decent article from the Chronicle about how to address wikipedia. Still slanted but there is a nod to being realistic.