Tuesday 8 November 2011

Janet's Top 10 Tools for Learning 2011



Here is my selection of the Top 10 Tools for Learning I am submitting for Jane Hart's 2011 edition of Top 100 Tools for Learning. I have chosen the following tools and sites because I like using them for either teaching, or my professional development.

In no uncertain order, here are my choices for 2011:

  1. Twitter - I wouldn't be able to keep up with current trends and technology without it
  2. Posterous - a new blogging platform for me
  3. Slideshare - useful for keeping my presentations in one place
  4. Jing - a great tool for screen captures and making videos
  5. Powerpoint - I enjoy creating presentations with this easy to use tool
  6. Storybird - a beautiful storytelling creation site
  7. Scoop.it - an easy to use web curation site
  8. Diigo - great to keep all my bookmarks in one place
  9. Animoto - fabulous slideshows can be easily created
  10. Moodle - a versatile virtual learning platform
If you would like to vote for your Top 10 Tools of 2011, you can add yours here:

http://c4lpt.co.uk/top-tools/share-your-top-10-tools/

Voting closes on Sunday 13th November, so make sure you submit your entries before then!

Update November 14th 2011!
The list has been finalised and you can view the full list on Jane Hart's site here.

I have embedded the latest slideshow below. Three of my tools made it to the Top 10!




3 comments:

Anne Hodgson said...

Dear Janet,
Thanks for posting. It's nice to see that you're still going strong with this topic. I'm giving a tech tools workshop to teachers next week, but there are far better experts, and there is far more to know than I can begin to list.
When I scrolled through the top 100, I was a bit confused, because she has things that come bundled with a Mac in there (iMovie), and free Web 2.0 things like Twitter, and then again things like Powerpoint, that you buy as a program. I didn't notice whether she had any online products that cost a fee of some sort - except perhaps Moodle, which needs hosting.
All this must be confusing for people who haven't tried to keep up with the times. I don't pretend to be an expert, but like you I've tried out stuff and attempted to find interesting applications. Now, with all that is at our disposal, we can start thinking the other way around: What do my students need in order to learn better, and which is the best way for them to do so. And if for some reason it seems adviseable for them to share links to their work or record themselves or visualize things, or to combine thesaurus work with some visualization, to then go for a technical solution.
I've been mostly offline because social networking ate into my personal life, and I sometimes feel like a highschool dropout who comes back to her old school to watch everyone graduating ;=) No, seriously, it's really nice to see that you are still working as hard as ever in this area, and obviously enjoying yourself. Power to you!
Warm regards,
Anne

Anne Hodgson said...

PS after all that waffling, can I ask you some questions?

Re Slideshare - a while ago I went back to find a presentation, and it was gone. Is there a limited time that these stay online?

Re: Scoop.it - what are the advantages of using something like this instead of posting it in your blog?

Re: Diigo - what makes this better than Delicious (which is the only site I use)?

Thanks, Janet :-)

How are you getting on with Moodle, btw??

Janet Bianchini said...

Dear Ann

Many thanks for your interesting comments and insights. Please accept my apologies for not replying to your comments earlier! It's lovley to see you back in the blogosphere after the very busy times you've had. I hope your tech tools workshop went well for you.

It's always so difficult to know which tools to include in a workshop as there are so many to choose from. It's a constant dilemma for me when I run Blended Learning sessions for teachers. Getting the right balance is essential: too many tools and you risk overwhelming students, too few and you risk boring the more tech-savvy. Having a pre-course questionnaire with specific questions regarding participants' pre-existing knowledge of tech tools could help sort this issue out.

Re your questions- not sure why Slideshare doesn't have your presentation. I wasn't aware that it has a time limit for how long they are kept on the system. Not sure if you have already looked, but you can contact Slideshare and mention this issue via their customer service here:

http://help.slideshare.com/entries/102248-how-do-i-file-a-ticket-with-customer-support

Re Scoop.it - I like to have for example all my comics and cartoons links in one place. Other users can suggest new comics to me and I can automatically accept them, so it does the work for me. I quite like the fact that it's separate from my blog. I also have an RSS feed which links scoop.it to my blog sidebar, so I have easy access to it.

Re Diigo - I have never used delicious, so I can't really make a comparison. I am very happy with diigo and it seems to be working very well. I also store my bookmarks and links on a wiki (wikispaces) and I find this is a useful back-up system :-)

Re Moodle - I've yet to actively try out Moodle 2.0, as it looks very user-friendly and much more versatile than previous editions.

Hope I've been able to answer your questions and once again, it's lovely to hear from you. Let's keep in touch more often :-)

Best wishes

Janet