The Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies has assembled two lists of the Top Tools for 2009: The Top Tools for Learners, and the Top Tools for Learning Professionals.

There is a lot of overlap between the two lists, with several software programs, some more familiar than others. Each item links to a page on their website that explains its function in more detail, with a link to the host site for more information. Below are the top tools, with my own comments…

What made the top ten:

1. Delicious – Social bookmarking. Adding this tool to your browser makes it easy to bookmark websites and save them online–as well as on your computer–so you can share them with others by sending them a link to  your delicious page rather than creating static links page that needs to be updated manually.

2. Twitter – This is an overwhelmingly popular phenomenon for “micro-blogging”–i.e., posting messages of 140 characters or less. Instructors can use it to send out announcements, and there’s an option to have Twitter updates sent to users’ cell phones, which can come in handy if you need to get word out to students who aren’t online 24/7. The down side is that there are so many “tweets” passing through the Twitterverse that messages can be easily lost in the deluge. If you want to use it for the cell phone/course announcement option, you might request students to set up a separate Twitter account for class purposes. For more good advice on using Twitter as an educator, check out Laura Walker’s blog post on Nine Great Reasons Why Teachers Should Use Twitter.

3. Skype – This is the internet’s answer to free long-distance/international phone calls. Save your cell phone minutes and phone bills by using Skype for instructor/student conference calls and online office hours. Students can use it for group project conferencing, too. There’s also a video feed option for those who have web cams. As with any synchronous messaging service, however, be aware of the difference between time zones for you and your students.

4. Google Reader – RSS is an efficient way to stay up-to-date on blogs, wikis, and any other website that posts frequent updates. In simple terms, it’s like email for websites. Sign up a free account for Google Reader (if you don’t already have an account through GMail or one of their other handy services). Then, go to individual websites and select a “subscribe” option (The Common Craft video “RSS in Plain English” shows exactly how to do this). This is handy for any professional or student to keep tabs on developments in the field, news sites, or even icanhascheezburger.com–or ask your students to keep blog journals (or one general course blog) and ask them to subscribe via RSS for updates.

5. Google Docs – Google Docs let users store documents and collaborate with others. Besides course collaborative projects, it’s also handy for keeping documents online that you want people to link to without attachments or thumb drives–resumes and presentation slides, for example.

6. Ning – A social networking platform that lets you create your own social network. This one is still new to me, but it looks like it’s worth investigating. It might be a superior alternative to Facebook Groups. But then, students are already on Facebook. We’ll see…

7. PowerPoint – Need I explain what this is? Of everything in the list so far, this is the only tool that isn’t free–unless your school/office includes it on your work computer.

8. Slideshare – Another site for storing documents like PPt slides, and Word and Excel docs–with the added advantage of sharing your work in a social-networking-esque capacity. Get yourself noticed!

9. SnagIt – A tool for creating screen captures–i.e., taking a “picture” of whatever’s on your computer screen. Like PowerPoint, this isn’t free. Neither is Adobe Pro, which also takes screen captures. If all you want is to embed a screen capture onto a website, Sni.ps will let you do it for free.

10. Audacity – For creating podcast lectures, or recording audio onto your PowerPoint slides. It’s easy enough to use, and a smooth product for open-source software.

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This entry was posted on Monday, April 13th, 2009 at 1:37 pm and is filed under Learning Aids, Podcasting, Social Networking, Visual Aids, Web Tools. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.