My Top 10 Tools for Learning

Jane Hart of the Centre for Learning and Performance Technologies is in the process of compiling her latest Top 100 Tools for Learning. The first round for 2008 closes on March 31. Here's my Top 10 (well 11 actually, but it could have been more.) Click here to find out how to submit your entries. I also find Jane's e-Learning Tip of the Day extremely useful.

1. Garageband

I just love this apple application. Make music, make podcasts, make vodcasts. The world is your oyster with this. Sorry for Windows users.

2. iMovie (HD version)

Another top apple application. I prefer this version because I'm used to it. I've not tried out the O8 version because I use a G4 PowerBook and you need an Intel Mac.

3. Gmail

Best web based email by far. Although I actually use Thunderbird to actually read my mail. But with Gmail it is so easy to find "lost" messages. I've also recently learned about a really useful trick with gmail where you can create supplemental adresses by adding a + after your user name. More info here.

4. Gabcast

Great tool for podcasting by phone. Especially if you have a contract mobile with free minutes.

5. Glogster / Scrapblog

Superb mashup tools that kids could use to create e-posters. Advantage of these over paper is that you can add audio and video to your "canvas"

6. ClassTools

Brilliant resource for creating Flash exercises. The best thing is, you don't even have to know about Flash.

7. Slideshare

Great for sharing presentations. But I love the Slidecast facility where you can add an mp3 file to run with your slides. Great for vocab drilling because you can show the flashcards at the same time.

8. Twitter

I have picked up so much from Twitter since it "invaded" my life. Although it can be very distracting. Twitpic is a great way of sharing pictures via twitter.

9. Voice Thread

Not used this yet but the potential is enormous for kids to produce multimedia presentations and comment on each other's work. Very AiFL. Especially great because you can set a pro account for educators for free.

10. Voki

Greal all round resource but in particular good to encourage shy kids to speak a foreign language, because they don't have to see themselves.

I have blogged about these applications here, here and here. Oh and here and here as well.


Technorati Tags: garageband, imoviehd, janehart, gmail, gabcast, glogster, scrapblog, clastools, slideshare, twitter, voicethread, voki