Jane Hart extended to me an invitation to join her Top 10 Learning Tools exercise.
My list of favorite tools is focused on web-based tools. While software-based tools in most cases have greater functionality, the baseline capability of their web-based counterparts is rising very quickly. These tools have baseline capability that will satisfy most users.
- Vyew – easy to use, collaborate, multi-functional, free for use, and accessible from any computer connected to the internet. You can’t beat that combination. Enables both formal and informal group learning activities.
- del.icio.us – At first I simply didn’t “get” del.icio.us. it seemed to simple. But it’s simplicity is its secret. With the launch of the Firefox del.icio.us extension, I was won over. Enables easy storage of found resources by individuals or groups. Tagging opens all resources labeled as “not private” to any del.icio.us member.
- Zoho Creator – This application is very sophisticated for those who need the best but also modulates so that it is accessible for all customers. Creator takes away the hardest part of anecdotal data which is the establishment and maintenance the databases. Simply create your data collection files and then create any number of reports from that particular area. Forms and reports can be into websites and blogs to perform data collection and subsequent reporting.
- CoComment – Allows you to track comments to posts in blogs across the blogosphere to track the conversations – whether you comment or not. you can do this for your own reading purposes, or you can utilize a widget that will post comments you’ve made throughout the blogosphere in the sidebar of your blog.
- LinkedIn– This social networking site for business minded folks has been compelling from its start and remains so today.
- Google Documents, Page Creator, Gmail – Why they don’t have the power and depth of Microsoft Office, these tool make up for it with their simultaneous editing capabilities, their easy of access to and from the web and their overall usability.
- Ning – a tool designed to enable anyone – regardless of their knowledge of programming and/or mark-up languages – can create their own online social network. Ning is intuitive and easy to use. The have begun to add all sorts of widgets and other add-on functionality to allow any community to customize the environment to make it uniquely their own. Enables instructors to create classroom communities, organizations to create viral interest groups, informal learning through communities of interest, etc.
- Firefox and its Extensions and Add-On – Firefox out-of-the-download is a great browser. Easy to use, good speed, few if any display issues for any type of content. But it is the extensions and add-ons that really put Firefox way ahead. Some of my favorites include del.icio.us bookmarks, MeasureIt, HyperWord, and Tag Editor.
- Trailfire– Simply the best web notation tool yet put out there. It can be used by individual and groups to make and organize notes about websites that appear as a callout when they visit that site. It can also be used to create a “tour” of websites around a particular topic. Each of the “trailmarks” has the ability to display text, audio, video and enables blog-like comments regarding each note. Trailfire enables the creation of pre-designed tours of the web for new employees, collaboration amongst team mates who contribute best practice sites and comment on each others contributions, or can serve as a mini-blog on competitors and market conditions for a sales force.
- Mind42 and Mindmeister – I’m currently torn between which of these tools I prefer. They are very similar in the capabilities and what they have that none of the other online tools has is simultaneous collaboration. Team decision making, project planning, strategic planning, and brainstorming are a few of the activities that can be enhanced through collaborative mind mapping.
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online-conferencing, notetaking, mindmapping, browsers, collaborative-content, social-networks, comment-tracking, form-creation
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me keep the eelearning's name afloat through this transition.
e e learning 
how good is vyew? can you use it with severall persons?
Vyew states no limits on the number of users. i’ve been in sessions will about 100 with no technical problems. the only question with very large teleconferencing groups in any tool is how effective they can be because of the number of the participants. My experience has been that when you get to 10 or so participants, you start loosing the power of real interaction.
Thank you for information
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