As educators, we are bombarded by “techno” language that has crept into the media, into our lives and into our schools.   You may have seen the innovative and engaging commercial by Sprint,  “Welcome to the Now Network”, stating that “right this minute, 233,000 people are Twittering and 26% of you don’t even know what this is….”  

Could you define  “twitter and tweet” to a school board member or fellow administrator?  Test yourself on your savvy about Web 2.0. 

1. Social Networking:  building online and web-based communities of people who share similar interests or activities and who interact through instant messaging, e-mail or text messaging. Facebook. MySpace and Ning are examples of social networking sites.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_networking
2. Twitter:  a free online service used to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, short, frequent responses, usually through handheld devices or cell phones; a single message is called a “Tweet.”  http://twitter.com/
3. Blogging: Blog is an abbreviated version of "weblog," a term used to describe web sites that maintain an ongoing chronicle of information, often in the form of periodic essays or commentaries. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog
4. Viral:  “Going viral” refers to the immediate and widespread popularity of a video, music clip or piece of media through internet sharing.   An example is the Susan Boyle video of her performance on Britain’s Got Talent; in seven days, the video was estimated to have received over 57 million viewings. http://www.viralvideochart.com/dailymotion/susan_boyle_on_britain_got_talent?id=x8ymn0
5. YouTube:  the most popular media-sharing site on the web—if you’ve seen or heard of a video or news clip, check here—you’ll find it.  Although often blocked, many districts are beginning to unblock it to take advantage of its abundance of educational material.   http://www.youtube.com/
6. Cookies and Breadcrumbs: Breadcrumbs are a practical web site navigation technique. Bread crumbs provide a “roadmap” for getting back to where your search first originated.  Cookies, however, are not so benign.  These are used to track your travels on the web and provide information on your spending habits, hobbies, and interests.  This can be useful for you but can also create both privacy and security issues.
7. Plug-ins: Plug-ins help your internet browser (i.e. Explorer, Firefox or Mozilla) perform functions like viewing special graphic formats or playing multimedia files. As more and more enhancements to websites are made, it is very common to find new plug-ins necessary for your computer.  Many plug-ins are free to download from the web; however, many free versions of the plug-ins are limited in scope.
8. Phishing: Phishing is the criminal process of attempting to acquire personal information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by pretending to be a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. A very common email is one purporting to be from the Internal Revenue Service; never send sensitive personal information in an unsolicited email. More on phishing at http://www.onguardonline.gov/topics/phishing.aspx
9. RSS:  stands for Really Simple Syndication (of course, it’s not “really simple” to anyone but the tech department staff….). It’s a format for delivering regularly changing web content directly to your personal website. It allows you to easily stay informed by retrieving the latest content from the sites you are interested in. You save time by not needing to visit each site individually. Watch this CommonCraft/YouTube video for more information; it’s short, informative and you’ll enjoy the format. 
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0klgLsSxGsU
10. PICNIC:  a humorous term for ascribing most computer errors to the user (where it usually belongs….); Problem in Chair, Not in Computer!

How did you fare?

9-10                 Very impressive!  Give yourself five gold stars!
6-8                   Not bad. You’re doing very well in introducing yourself to the new web.
3-5                   Needs improvement. Have lunch with the tech department members.
1-2                   What web? Please contact your local REMC director for assistance.