Information about Social Software

Since I am from a generation that did not grow up with computers (certainly not with Blogs, Wikis, or Moodle) I decided to search the web for information about social software. Although our interest is specific to using social software for educational purposes, I thought it might be useful to get a broader idea of what social software is and how it is used for any purpose, educational or otherwise. In so doing I found many interesting links to much information. One of the first places I ended up was the Internet Time Blog. It contains much information about a number of topics including social software. It also has many references to a great many other sites. Next I read a two-article series about social software in ASTD Learning Circuits. The first, We Learning: Social Software and E-Learning, gives a good definition for social software and lists some types that are "just around the corner". The second article, We Learning: Social Software and E-Learning, Part II, discusses social software tools that are either little used for educational purposes or could be used in the near future. These articles provided me a good starting point to learn more about social software.