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The term Social Media refers to the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into an interactive dialogue. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media)

Social media are online communications in which individuals shift fluidly and flexibly between the role of audience and author. To do this, they use social software that enables anyone without knowledge of coding, to post, comment on, share or mash up content and to form communities around shared interests.
(Source: http://propr.ca/2008/what-is-social-media/)

In this category, the judges will be looking for innovative uses of social media within an educational setting (classroom-, school- or district-wide implementation). Although the media may have required teacher or administrator access to set up, the day-to-day management tasks should be student-directed and educational in nature. For example, a MySpace site for a students' personal band would not be considered educational in nature, but a MySpace site for the school Jazz Band would fit in the educational category. The Social Media should be something that could extend or enhance the educational experience for students, teachers, parents, and/or the community as a whole.

Social Media examples include, but are not limited to...

Communication

• Blogs (Blogger, TypePad, WordPress, etc.)
• Micro-Blogging (Twittter, Plurk, etc.)
• Social Networking (Facebook, MySpace, Ning, Bebo, LinkedIn, etc.)
• Events (Upcoming, Eventful, Meetup.com, TinyChat, etc.)

Collaboration

• Wikis (Wikipedia, PBWorks, WetPaint, etc.)
• Social Bookmarking (Delicious, StumbleUpon, Diigo, Google Reader, etc.)
• Social News (Digg, Mixx, Reddit, etc.)
• Opinion Sites (epinions, Yelp, etc.)
• Document Sharing (Google Docs, ZoHo, etc.)

Multimedia

• Photo Sharing (Flickr, Picasa, etc.)
• Video Sharing (YouTube, TeacherTube, Vimeo, etc.)
• Livecasting (Ustream.tv, LiveStream, Skype, etc.)
• Podcasting

Reviews and Opinions

• Product Reviews (epinions, MouthShut.com, etc.)
• Community Q&A (Yahoo! Answers, WikiAnswers, Askville, Google Answers, etc.

Entertainment

• Virtual Worlds (SecondLife, The Sims Online, etc.)
  

Educational uses of Social Media include, but are not limited to...

• Using Twitter to share classroom/school events, homework assignments, etc.
• Using a Facebook to keep students/parents/community informed about events, information, etc.
• Using LiveStream to broadcast school events
  

For an example of the impact of the Social Media Revolution, see...

• Social Media in Plain English - a YouTube video