Software:
Adobe Acrobat Reader--http://www.adobe.com/reader/ Many online resources are in PDF format, so getting the most recent Adobe Reader will allow you to read these files.
Open Office--http://www.openoffice.org/ An alternative Office Suite that has built in PDF creation. Works on Windows, Mac, & Linux platforms.
Sites:
Presentations via CSS--http://meyerweb.com/eric/tools/s5/http://meyerweb.com/eric/tools/s5/ One of the neatest ideas that CSS allows is a presentation that automatically prints out as a handout. By sticking the slide text/graphics inside the slide division, the CSS controls the presentation so that it looks like slides on the screen, but prints out without all the formatting. Here is the Intro Presentation, and here is the presentation we are working on for a "Quiz Show" library orientation presentation.
Services:
Del.icio.us--http://del.icio.us/ (and other bookmarking services) This provides an easy way to collect Internet links. You can annotate links with commentary and keywords. By adding a keyword specific to a course, you can collect sites for a specific course (a site that you want for two or more courses can be "tagged" with more than one course keyword.) These links can be delivered in a variety of ways, including a feed that will post the links directly on your web page. Rebecca's del.icio.us page for Physics Educational sites, and the Physics Subject Guide with Internet sites.
There are many extra services attached to del.icio.us created by outside programmers, like Pasta, for pasting text (emails, logs, notes) into a del.icio.us link without having to create a separate webpage first. (Pasta entries are completely public, so don't paste sensitive or copyrighted information without permission.)
Web Collaborator--http://webcollaborator.com/ A web based, online collaboration site for documents. The history of every revision is kept for review. Documents can be exported as MS Word and PDF files.
Flickr--http://www.flickr.com/ Flickr is a photo sharing service with some neat features. You can upload any .jpg file, and add annotations.
Peanut Butter Wiki--http://pbwiki.com/ A wiki (collaborative writing space) designed with some good tools for educators (like password protection). Look at Professor Cooper's Freshman Writing class.
Blogger--http://www.blogger.com/ (and other blogging sites) A blog (weblog) is a chronologically published website. Most blogs are informal diary type, but people also use them for news of all types, academic discussion, creative publication, photo galleries, and even presentations. See Frequently Answered Questions, the Distance Education Librarian's Weblog, for news, resources, and solutions for distance/online education, including reviews of this week's SummerTech.