Technology Terms for “Non-Techie” Users

Jodi PerdueTechnology Instruction Specialist

Rabun County Schools

Web 2.0 A set of tools that let users interact

in some fashion on the Internet.

Examples: blogs, wikis, social networking

Blog Online journal or bulletin board, usually

with a single author, which allows comments from multiple readers

Example: http://rabuncountyschools.blogspot.com/

The parapros posted their screenshots in blog comments.

I could reply to each of their comments.

http://rabuncountyschools.blogspot.com/

This blog was built using Google’s free Blogger.

Wiki Dynamic, collaborative, searchable

online project or document which allows any user to create, edit, or remove content

Example: http://www.wikipedia.org

Social Network Online community where users control to

whom they connect and what information about themselves they share.

Examples: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google+, MySpace

Tag Cloud A visual organization of a list of words.

The list is weighted such that words with more “hits” or importance are in bold and/or bigger font.

Examples: Wordle, TagCloud, Tagul

RSS Feed An acronym used to describe the

standard for the syndication of changing Web content.

Users can subscribe to RSS content.

To read the content, users must use a Feed Reader such as Feedly, RSS Owl, Yahoo, or Reeder.

RSS Feed (small gray box) & Reader (Yahoo)

Hashtag The # sign is used by Twitter users to

help categorize their tweets to make them more easily searchable.

Example: If I want users to be able to find my Tweet about Educational Technology, I might type “Be sure to check out my SlideShare about Tech Terms. #educational #technology”

Twitter Twitter is a social network where users

type short messages (known as “Tweets”) which are read by the users’ followers.

Tweets have a maximum length of 140 characters.

Educators can find a wealth of shared resources by searching Twitter.

Twitter