Since my own explanation of fractals & their nature is fairly basic, I wanted to include some links to several wonderful educational sites that I think you might find useful.
TECHNICAL EXPLANATIONS / DEFINITIONS:
A very good, but technical explanation of fractals and their properties.
An excellent learning resource geared towards elementary and middle school students that is perfect for anyone who needs to know the basics, with lots of visual references.
A series of lessons from Yale University with many illustrations--starts simple and gets very complex.
http://classes.yale.edu/fractals/
BIOGRAPHIES:
One of the founders of fractal geometry, Benoit Mandelbrot.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beno%C3%AEt_Mandelbrot
Another founder, Gaston Maurice Julia.
ORGANIZATIONS:
The Fractal Foundation is an educational organization whose mission is to educate and inspire people about mathematics, art, science, chaos theory and nature.
