Whenever you can take five minutes to think about technology in teaching and learning, we want to help make it worth your while. Here are some low effort but high impact activties to stretch your tech muscle.

1. ELI: The 7 Things You Should Know About... series responds to questions like "What is it?" and "Why does it matter?" These two-page briefs help to articlulate how a technology applies to teaching and learning.

2. TED: Ideas Worth Spreading is a virtual feast ... but don't limit yourself to the technology menu.

3. NMC: Horizon Project has been charting the landscape of emerging technologies since 2002. If you only have five, literally, read the exceutive summary. Otherwise, you'll find the latest predictions, segmented in easily digested 1-5 year time frames, thoughtfully analyzed. Plus, the Creative Commons License makes it easy to use elsewhere.

4. Get your feet wet with web 2.0 technologies. Read a blog like NITLE's Liberal Education Today or the Chronicle of Higher Education's Wired Campus -- or plug into a podast, like Tech Therapy. You could even start a blog of your own; here's a helpful blog for new SLU bloggers.

5. Read a chapter of the Tower and the Cloud: Higher Education in the Age of Cloud Computing. Chances are you won't be able to read just one.

Suggest your own; we may swap it in!

Want more? Check out these technology resources for higher education.