I am an Education Advisor in Sacramento, CA. As an Education Advisor, I provide students the support, motivation, and resources that they need to set academic goals, as well as help them in achieving those goals.

I meet with students on a regular basis, to help the find classes, workshops , event etc that apply to their goal. I do various learning, and personality assessments, to assist students in learning more about themselves.  I also help them organize an annual portfolio, apply for college and so much more.

Other than Education, I love technology, and I wonder how we went without it for so long.
Information changes, and I honesty believe that its not about memorizing the information, its about knowing how to access the correct information, and use it in the appropriate way.

In order to do that I encourage my students, especially those that are home schooled, to do some social networking on and offline.

There are many tools that I love for this such as:

1. Twitter allows you to send txt messages to multiple users at a time, via the internet, or mobile phone.
2. I really love Utterz as well, its similar to twitters but you can also send not only txt, but video,photos, and even audio; perhaps for pod casting as well.
3. I also suggest a favorite site such as Shelfari where users can interact with one another. Shelfari is based on a love of books. Users write book reviews and meet others with the same or various interests.

Having a background in Web Design, I also love to implement Art, into my philosophy of guiding students.

4. Community Server, or any other blogging platform is an excellent tool for the not so technical writer, or artists to showcase their work. I emphasize using a blog as a virtual portfolio. But Community Server, as its stated is setup for communities, more than one user, but can also be used by one person. The thing I love is you can have your blog, multiple blogs even, a discussion board, photo , and video galleries, downloads area, and calendar all set into one location. I use it for myself.

I have suggestions for students that will make their learning a bit more interactive and interesting, but I have a few tools I use myself as an educator as well.

5. Another tool that I like in which I use myself, and encourage other Online Course Facilitators, and Instructional Designers to Utilize is  . Moodle is similar to other CMS’s but it is designed for teaching. Students can register for course, via the course directory, interact with one another and more. It just takes a little creativity, and Moodle can be the school one has always dreamed of having.
6. Webhuddle is another tool that is FREE and open source that I don’t think many know about. Its a live meeting space, that can be recorded and watched at a later time.
7. Net Support School is a network monitoring program for educators that allows you to monitor what students are doing on heir computers.  But the great thing about the school version is it allows you to do quizzes, shut down, and freeze machines. Students can virtually raise their hands, and you can support them via microphone and more. This was so excellent, so I use it at home.
8. Flickr. I love flickr, it allows you to host your photos online, but I love to use flickr as a way to see the diversity in Art, people, and culture. Students can network with one another comment on photos, etc.
9. Teacher Tube, yes teacher tube. Its similar to Youtube, but its all educational. Its a good place to learn new things, and network with others online.

Also with a background in Business I really like hands on, problem or project based learning. I believe that it teaches real world skills.

10. A favorite software developing company that I love is called isupportlearning. They have developed various hands on, project, and problem based software based on a particular students interests. For example they have a software based on Video Game Development. The student is an intern for a company and learns the ropes of the company and the skills design a product for a soda company, while also learning how to make his or her own video game.

I really hope that you enjoyed my suggestions, I follow Jane's blog, because she always post new resources, but I think that its not just about the resource, its the way that you use it. Think out of the box, and make it work for your needs.