AYKM (are you kidding me)? No, contrary to popular belief, text message-speak or textisms actually improve language skills, according to a recent study. No, RLY (really).

A Google jockey is a participant in a presentation or class who surfs the Internet for terms, ideas, Web sites, or resources mentioned by the presenter or related to the topic. The jockey's searches are displayed simultaneously with the presentation, helping to clarify the main topic and extend learning opportunities. The "7 Things You Should Know About..." series from the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI) provides concise information on emerging learning practices and technologies. Each brief focuses on a single practice or technology and describes what it is, where it is going, and why it matters to teaching and learning. Use "7 Things You Should Know About..." briefs for a no-jargon, quick overview of a topic and share them with time-pressed colleagues. In addition to the "7 Things You Should Know About…" briefs, you may find other ELI resources useful in addressing teaching, learning, and technology issues at your institution. To learn more, please visit the ELI Resources page.

Even if you could never justify spending $360 on a Kindle, you can still partake in the mobile eBook revolution. Amazon Kindle for iPhone & iPod Touch (Free) is a new app that lets you buy and download Kindle books and read them on the go - without buying the Kindle 2. In addition to having access to more than 240,000 books, the app lets you adjust text size, add bookmarks, and get free samples. If you already have a Kindle, the app's Whispersync technology saves and synchronizes your bookmarks across your Kindle and your iPhone.

Here are six great sites that will help you publish your work, guaranteeing you a published book that can be sold via different outlets, such as Amazon.

Talks Evan Williams: How Twitter's spectacular growth is being driven by unexpected uses

Fliggo allows you to create your own video sharing website in seconds. It makes the process very easy by taking care of the technical part. All you have to do is select a title and address for your site, fill out description, choose site template, upload videos and invite friends. You can build a simple private site to share videos with friends, a video blog or a full-featured community video site like YouTube, where other users can upload videos, leave comments etc.

I think it might be more accurate to say that "Web 2.0 will be a significant part of the future of learning," and that in the best case scenario it will become an important part of our formal educational institutions.

When reading your RSS feeds, do you prefer a local application versus one that is online-only? If so, look no further than ShareFire. Besides being platform-independent (courtesy of Adobe Air), it is also completely free and open-source. It was created with article sharing in mind, as its name implies. According to its creators, Christian Cantrell and Dan Koestler, this was a priority. ShareFire supports sharing stories to AIM, Twitter and email, and posting articles to many services including Delicious, Digg, MySpace and Windows Live Bookmarks (now called favorites).

Customizing Google News

Hearst to try and stop newspapers from dying...with version of e-reader like the Kindle.

Listening to podcasted versions of university lectures seems to be better for students than simply going to class, according to new research by State University of New York (SUNY) Fredonia psychologist Dani McKinney. Her study, titled "iTunes University and the classroom: Can podcasts replace Professors?" suggests that students who download the podcast version of a class tend to achieve better academic performance than those who don't, though it's more about what the students do when they download the podcast than the existence of the podcast itself.

5 useful tips to control Twitter use and time

The internet is an invaluable resource to self-educated learners. Below is a list of some of the most helpful sites out there including opencourseware materials, free libraries, learning communities, educational tools, and more.