Learning Conversations

Jane Hart is collating her annual list of the tools people use to support learning and development.

Here's my contribution. In descending order of importance:

1. Google search. Need I say more? It's fast. I know how to get the best out of it. It's my secondary brain.
2. Google Chrome. I was a Firefox person, but Chrome is just so much faster. My browser is my gateway to information and to people. It's also where I test any web-based materials I create . Chrome's developer analysis tools are second-to-none.
3. Snagit. From Techsmith. Allows you to quickly take screenshots, or just particular windows or parts of the screen, and then to make them look pretty (eg. torn edges, shadows, arrows) quickly and easily. You can even save profiles, so that every screenshot automatically gets the same treatment.
4. Jing. Also from Techsmith. But free. It creates 5 minute (max) videos of your screen activity along with any narration you want to do. There's no editing capability, but for ease of use and effectiveness it can't be beaten. I can't count the number of times I've been able to help people with a quick video that only took 5 mins to produce. Just as if I was showing them in person.
5. Wordpress. It's not just a blogging tool. It's great as a content management system. Very flexible, and easy to customise. And with a fantastic mobile (especially iPhone) interface
6. Webex. There are other web-based meeting/presentation tools. But Webex is what we have available. It works. It's robust.
7. Moodle. Flexible. Tried and tested. Teacher/trainer-friendly. And, with Moodle 2.0 coming out, even easier to connect to other Moodle's, repositories and data systems. Hard to beat really.
8. Google Reader. The heart of my personal learning network. It's where I go for in-depth thought and analysis from people I trust to deliver.
9. Context Sensitive Learning. A tool that I push at every opportunity. It acts as middleware between systems that you're trying to get people to use, and the learning content that will help them use it.
10. Yammer or Socialcast. Both very similar, and both work fantastically in large organisations to help break down the structural holes (pdf) that stop ideas spreading.