I'm not sure that this can be called a 'quick' guide to ... anything as there are lots of links, but I like the idea of blogging being a PLP (professional learning portfolio)
a really interesting blog post from a teacher in the US, reviewing her online idenity she has on Twitter, Facebook and her blog and how she manages this, as compared to her 'real' identity.
A whole list of people on Twitter who have agreed to be online mentors to others in the twitter/blogging/web 2.0 sphere. I think a really interesting activity for the new L4 course might be for each student to take at least one person from the list and feedback what they learn.
A really interesting article, I haven't had a chance to e pore the further links as yet but I think they could certainly be useful.
I'm not sure what I think about qus 1 & 2, less than a minute to learn the basics? How do you define basics? I like to think of tech in terms of how I can use it in the classroom first, so if the answer to this is yes then I'll invest time in exploring it further, or store the info for a later date.
2- yes, the students need to be able to easier access a tech resource, just as they would any other resource and you need to consider any potential problems with all materials or activities.