The best tech resources you're not using

Looking for a way to integrate technology in your library? Looking for new tech tools to use in your classroom? Free Technology for Teachers has what you need, no matter your uses.

No matter the content area, no matter your level of tech literacy or the amount of computers you have available in your school or organization the blog has what you need to stay up to date on what is going on in the tech world, and ways to not get passed by.

The writer of this blog is a Google certified teacher who uses a wealth of difference technology in his classroom and is followed by more then 30,000 users a day. His suggestions offer ways to differentiate instruction, to improve students' media literacy and to keep up on the world around you.

His most recent post gives advice on how to stay up to date on the world of technology. His suggestions are simple and easy. Step one, sign up for Twitter and subscribe to tweets from experts on technology or whatever it is that interests you. Step two, check those tweets and see what links they have included.

Step three: put all the blogs and Web sites you love on your RSS feed (Google reader is a great one) Then all you have to do to keep up is log into your reader and it will automatically update for you. The mindset? It is much easier for the information you want to come to you, than for you to go to it. Once you know the good sites that you want to follow, you don't have to worry about bookmarking them or forgetting them, just put them in your feed and you're good to go.

Another great site for librarians and all sorts of book lovers is Good Reads. The site has a combination of social networking and book organizing features. You can follow your favorite authors and see what your friends are reading. You can rate books you have read and mark books you want to read as "to read." I have used this site to join a book club for 20 and 30 somethings.

In your library you could use this to help your biggest readers organize the books they read and want to read. It would be a great tool for a teen book club to use to share thoughts on what they are reading before the next meeting. It also would hook teen users with the social networking features. It's pretty much a Facebook for the reading set. You can take quizzes on books, find out what others rate as the best books they've read, see what other readers like and don't like. Have your students and users start networking with other readers to see the things they can learn through others.