Here are some recent additions to various “The Best….” lists related to social media:

A Beginner’s Guide to Twitter is from Read Write Web. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Beginning To Learn What Twitter Is All About.

A Newbie’s Guide to Pinterest is from The Atlantic. I’m adding it to The Best Guides To Figuring Out Pinterest.

Google+ Hangouts Add Screen Sharing to List of Collaboration Tools is from Read Write Web. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning What Google+ Is All About.

How to Use the Google Plus Creative Kit to Edit and Spice Up Your Photos is from Guiding Tech. I’m adding it to the same list.

How To Use Google+ (A Beginners Guide) is a useful video:

I’ve written quite a bit about our school’s efforts, other similar programs, and new national initiatives to get Internet access and computers into the homes of low-income students and their families (see The Best Resources For Learning About Schools Providing Home Computers & Internet Access To Students).

I’ve just seen the public announcement by the Federal Communications Commission laying-out their 2012 plan to make a huge effort towards this goal happen, and it really sounds impressive.

I must admit to a bit of skepticism, as well. During my nineteen year community organizing career, I saw many big public pronouncements from government bodies or private institutions like banks about huge investments they were going to make in programs to help low-income communities. Sometimes those words would turn into reality, and sometimes they wouldn’t.

Let’s hope this one actually happens….

In case you haven’t heard, Pinterest is the hot new social media site of the moment. It’s not even open to the general public yet, and you have to request an invitation. I’m not entirely convinced the Web needs yet another social media tool, but who knows?

Here are my picks for The Best Guides To Figuring Out Pinterest:

Pinterest: A Beginner’s Guide to the Hot New Social Network is from Mashable.

A Guy’s Guide To Pinterest is from Read Write Web.

A Quick Guide To Pinterest from Envigor.

Pinterest: A Step By Step Guide To Pinning Your Life Away is from Shoe String Launch.

A Newbie’s Guide to Pinterest is from The Atlantic.

Pinterest Works Better Than Google+ is from ReadWriteWeb.

Feedback is always welcome.

If you found this post useful, you might want to consider subscribing to this blog for free.

You might also want to explore the 800 other “The Best…” lists I’ve compiled.

Though I haven’t gotten an iPad yet, we did get one for my mother-in-law. So, with an eye towards helping her now, and me in the future, I put out a call to readers to their suggested resources as well as hunting for them on my own.

You might also be interested in The Best Sites For Beginning iPhone Users Like Me.

Here are my choices, and choices suggested by readers (their recommendations are better than mine!), as The Best Resources For Beginning iPad Users:

iPad Getting Started is from TC Geeks.

The 10 best iOS apps of 2011 comes from The Telegraph.

The best iOS apps for children, 2011 is also from The Telegraph.

The top 50 iPad apps is from The Guardian.

Choosing the Right Keyboard For Your iPad is from Read Write Web.

The Best iPad Apps: 10 Essential Apps For The New iPad You Got For The Holidays is from The Huffington Post.

Educreations lets you easily create video lessons.

Fill Your New Kindle, iPad, iPhone with Free eBooks, Movies, Audio Books, Courses & More is from Open Culture.

iPads In The Art Room

APPiticdescribes itself as:

…an directory of apps for education by Apple Distinguished Educators (ADEs) to help you transform teaching and learning.

It has over 1,300 categorized apps, including a ton organized by Bloom’s Taxonomy.

Here are great suggestions from readers:

Paul McKean has an excellent collection of fifteen useful links.

Chrissie Turkington recommends iPad Tips: Getting Started with the iPad.

Katie suggests these apps: Evernote and Dropbox; Facebook and Twitter; iMovie

Julia Ault has compiled an excellent collection of iPad resources.

Daniela Arghir Bunea suggests these apps: iBooks, Animoto Video Slideshows, flex:player and TeacherPal

Kathy Fagan writes:

I am such a newbie and the apps that have excited me so far are 1. iSpeech Translator, which will convert spoken words to text and then translate, sometimes with spoken words at the other end too. Not perfect, but may be useful in a multi-language classroom and 2. a PDF annotating tool such as GoodNotes or UPad, which obviously can be used to highlight and make margin notes but can also be used on blank “paper” to scribble quick ideas or diagrams. UPad has more features, but GoodNotes has a simple, clean interface and easy access to Dropbox.

Melissa A. Venable writes:

Don’t be afraid to put your new iPad through its paces. Consider all of the tasks you perform, media you consume, with other tech gadgets (phone, ereader, laptop/desktop, even tv, etc.) and try them on the iPad. And explore the wide variety of apps. I gathered a list of educator-recommended apps at a recent conference – the productivity apps are particularly helpful.

Darrell Rudmann suggests these apps: GoodReader, NoteTaker HD, SimpleNote, mSecure, iA Writer, iThoughts HD, Keynote, Dropbox, and ignition.

Jan Harding writes:

App Start is a great little app that walks newbies through the best apps in many different catagories. App Tracker is another good one that tracks the best FREE apps by category as well. Looking forward to seeing your post as I am also collecting info for beginning users.

Sorting Out an Avalanche of iPad Apps for the Best of 2011 is from The New York Times.

28 iPad 2 Tips and Tricks is from PC World.

Google’s Free 64-Language Translator App Comes to the iPad is from Read Write Web.

The School That Launched 1,000 iPads is a useful post from Richard Byrne’s blog.

“70 Interesting Ways To Use An iPad In Your Classroom” is the newest — at least, to me it’s the newest — in Tom Barrett’s great Interesting Ways series. You can find all of Tom’s “Interesting Ways” here, and that link is also on my The Best Places To Learn Web 2.0 Basics list. Thanks to Candace Townsley on Twitter for the tip.

IPads In The Classroom comes from Ed Tech Teacher.

The Very First App You Should Load on Your New iPad is from Jeffrey Thomas.

And if you’re considering using iPads in the classroom, Redefining Instruction With Technology: Five Essential Steps by Jennie Magiera is a must read.

20 Great Classroom iPad Apps to add to your Collection (1-5) is from Tom Barrett.

Thanks to everybody who contributed to this list!

Feedback is welcome.  And I hope people will continue to leave suggestions in the comments section of this post.

If you found this post useful, you might want to look at the over 800 other “The Best…” lists and consider subscribing to this blog for free

I’d like to prepare a “The Best…” list for beginning iPad users — educator and non-educator alike.

What are your suggestions for apps and guides for newbies? I will, of course, credit you for suggestions in the post I write.

I’ve previously posted about “Internet Essentials,” Comcast’s program for providing low-cost Internet service to low-income students.

They’ve published a series of relatively decent online videos on using computers and online safety. They seem accessible (and also have closed captioning). I think they’re particularly good for online safety issues because most other similar programs that are accessible to English Language Learners are clearly geared toward young children, while these seem to be more engaging to adolescent and adults.

I’m adding them to:

The Best Eleven Websites For Students To Learn About Computers

The Best Sites For Learning Online Safety

Since I have published so many “The Best…” lists, I thought it might be helpful to readers if I posted a few year-end collections.

Here is A Collection Of “The Best…” Lists On Technology — 2011:

The Best Web 2.0 Applications For Education In 2011

The Best Posts About The Khan Academy

The Best Posts On The NY Times Ed Tech Article

The Best Research Available On The Use Of Technology In Schools

The Best Resources For Learning What Google+ Is All About

The Best Online Teleprompters

The Best Resources For Google Earth Beginners Like Me

The Best Online Virtual “Corkboards” (or “Bulletin Boards”)

The Best (& Easiest) Ways To Record Online Video Interviews

The Best Ways To Make A Map Showing Your Facebook Friends (& Twitter Followers)

The Best Resources For Learning About Schools Providing Home Computers & Internet Access To Students

The Best — And Easiest — Ways To Use YouTube If, Like Us, Only Teachers Have Access To It

The Best Ways For English Language Learners To Create Online Content Easily & Quickly

The Best Places To Find Research On Technology & Language Teaching/Learning

The Best Tools For Printing Out Webpages

The Best Tools For Creating Fake “Stuff” For Learning

The Best Resources For Maximizing The Use Of Dropbox

The Best Resources For Beginning To Learn What Quora Is All About…

Here are the newest additions to The Best Sites For Learning About The History Of Technology:

A Before-Its-Time Machine is a diagram from The New York Times of the “first” computer design — “Researchers are planning to build a working version of the Analytical Engine, which Charles Babbage conceived of in the 1830s but never completed.” You can read more about the project here.

Check out the Museum of Obsolete Objects.

I recently revised an older post and converted it into The Best Good, Inexpensive & Simple Classroom Technology Tools.

Please contribute additional suggestions…..

Here are the newest additions to The Best Sites For Beginning iPhone Users Like Me:

Forget Text, Vimessa Brings Visual Voicemail to the Masses is from Mashable.

iPhone photo apps to download now is from The BBC.