School 2.0 sites to bookmark now

August is one of those inconsequential months - no major holidays, summer blahs, and the constant reminder that - for students - it's time to get your act together for the fall. Here are a few "back-to-school" sites to bookmark, especially for those who are college bound in the next week or two...

MeadMap
You probably know the name Mead as the company that makes notebooks. As a natural progression from paper products to the Web, MeadMap is a collaborative note-taking app that runs on the Web. You can share notes with up to 20 other users, chat with them about topics, and publish collaborative notes. You can also export to Microsoft Word and use the notes offline.

Cosmeo
Cosemo is a fee-based service (there's a trial available) from Discovery Channel that has 30,000 videos, 40,000 math tutorials, and loads of reference articles and other teaching aids to help kids get a jump on their homework. It's actually based on the materials used at physical schools across the US.

SurfCanyon
For students who need a powerful search tool for research, SurfCanyon is a search aggregator - it displays the best results from the top search engines. It works as a plug-in for IE and Firefox. What I like about it is that you can search for a more obscure term, such as "managed code"" and see more relevant results from Google, Yahoo, MSN LiveSearch, and other portals.

Periodic Table
Here's a "single use" site that just lists the periodic table, with pop-ups for each element. It is powered by Ajax and has links to more complete online descriptions.

Object Graph
Most people use Dictionary.com to look up word spellings and definitions, but this more Web 2.0-enabled dictionary automatically finds words as you type, so it's much easier to find a word if you don't know the spelling. You can just type "plag" to see how to spell plagiarism, for example.

The American Academy
Some Web 2.0 sites help you do research and enhance your education. The American Academy is a virtual "school-as-a-service" site that lets you actually get a high school degree online. It's an accredited program; all administration and homework is handled online.