In the summer of 2009 the American Association of School Librarians honored 25 websites as the best for teaching and learning. These 25 websites foster the qualities of innovation, creativity, active participation, and collaboration. They are free, web-based sites that are user friendly and encourage a community of learners to explore and discover. Websites from this list that would be useful in a public library setting will be previewed at the March 2nd First Tuesday’s continuing education free webinar at 9 a.m.

1. Explore and Discover: Teaching and Learning Websites from the AASL Ahniwa Ferrari Online Resources Consultant Washington State Library First Tuesdays 02 March 2010

2. What We’ll Explore: Diigo Google Reader MindMeister Wikispaces Animoto GoodReads Ning Twitter

3. Diigo: What is it? http://www.diigo.com An online bookmarking tool, much like Del.icio.us. Advanced annotation, highlighting, sharing, and archiving functions.

4. Diigo: How is it useful?

5. Diigo: How is it useful?

6. Diigo: How is it useful? Find, join, and create groups to share links with colleagues and peers. Archive pages forpermanent retention. View Diigo notes from other users on the web.

7. Google Reader: What is it? http://www.google.com/reader/ An RSS / Feed reader with some social functionality, via your Google account. Tag, star, share, like, note, and do other things with your favorite online news and blog posts.

8. Google Reader: How is it useful?

9. Google Reader: How is it useful? Google accounts are probably one of the most ubiquitous things on the web. Share stories with your “followers” andview stories they have shared. Find similar stories and similar blogs, all based on your reading tastes.

10. MindMeister: What is it? http://www.mindmeister.com/ Mindmeister is a free online mind-mapping tool.

11. MindMeister: How is it useful? It’s free mind-mapping software! Easy to integrate images, notes, links, attach files, and collaborate. Save maps to .pdf or image files.

13. Outline / Framework Design

14. Anonymous collaboration.

15. Marriage of words and visuals.

16. Individual expression of creativity.

17. Condensing material into a concise and memorable format.

18. Team building or synergy creating activity.

19. Enhancing work morale.More ideas and articles: http://mindmappingsoftwareblog.com/

20. Wikispaces: What is it? http://www.wikispaces.com/ If you want a wiki (or lots of wikis),and you want it to be free,and easy to use, and all online … … Wikispaces is a good way to go!

21. Wikispaces: How is it useful?

22. Why a wiki? A wiki is a website where users can add, remove, and edit every page using a web browser. It's so terrifically easy for people to jump in and revise pages that wikis are becoming known as the tool of choice for large, multiple-participant projects. via O’Reilly Media: http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/network/2006/07/07/what-is-a-wiki.html

23. Things to do with your wiki: Work collaboratively and from a distance on projects and documents. Create a resource portal, pathfinder, or other kind of subject guide. Brainstorm, plan, and work together; separate projects into small working groups and watch it all come together on the wiki.

24. Animoto: What is it? http://animoto.com/ Turn your photos & videos into pure amazing. Animoto automatically produces beautifully orchestrated, completely unique video pieces from your photos, video clips and music. Fast, free and shockingly easy.

25. Animoto: How is it useful? Top Ten Reasons to visit UC Libraries: http://animoto.com/play/R8Hu3UXPeuQMlvTw6tArCQ One-click remix. Share to Facebook, YouTube, Twitter … Embed on your website. 30-second videos are free; pay for longer videos or better resolution.

26. Animoto: How is it useful? Promote your library’s events, products, or core services. Use to market your summer reading program. Use it to educate!

27. GoodReads: What is it? Keep track of what you’re reading, what your friends are reading, what your friend’s friends … … keep track of what EVERYONE is reading, read their reviews, find new books, see what’s hot, see what people are looking forward to, and more.

28. Goodreads: How is it useful? Find read-alikes and new books for your collection. Create an account for your library, friend your patrons, read their opinions on books and share your own. Goodreads is social networking for readers.

29. Ning: What is it? http://www.ning.com Ning allows you to create your own social networks on any subject you like. You could create a social network about your cat, or clowns, or gravity … but it’s probably more likely you’d create one for your library.

30. Ning: How is it useful? Create your own social networks. Network with your users and allow them to network with each other. Create networks around books, events, or programs, to allow participants to socialize online.

31. Twitter: What is it? http://twitter.com/ Twitter is a “micro-blogging” service, allowing people to share and find brief stories on the web.

32. Twitter: How is it useful? Searching Twitter can provide an interesting “right now” view on any given subject, assuming people are talking about it. Services like OneRiot search Twitter posts that contain links, and then send you to the links pages (not the tweets).

33. Twitter: How is it useful? You need a good network to really get a lot out of Twitter. It’s a great tool to remix and follow conferences (or anything big that is happening, e.g. Olympics). It’s a good way to get up-to-the-second news, sometimes …

34. Explore and Discover: Teaching and Learning Websites from the AASL Ahniwa Ferrari Online Resources Consultant Washington State Library First Tuesdays 02 March 2010