Learning Conversations

The following is an update to my top 10 tools, as listed at:

http://c4lpt.co.uk/recommended/markberthelemy.html

Caveat: My role changes rapidly depending very much on the project(s) I'm working on. This set of tools reflects the one I'm using most at the moment.

1. Still Firefox, but Chrome is a close second. My browser, as well as being a research tool is where I run applications, and troubleshoot designs. It needs to be standards compliant (ie. not IE) and have tools within it that help with the design process. Which leads on to my second tool...
2. The Firefox Web Developer Toolbar, is an addon to Firefox that is indispensible for sorting out problems with HTML and CSS. Especially important with complex applications like Moodle which has multiple, nested CSS files.
3. b2evolution, still the engine that I use to power my Learning Conversations blog. It's immensely powerful, especially so if you want multi-user and multi-blog systems - far easier to set up than Wordpress MU. However, for what I and most people need, actually my next tool is probably more suited.
4. Wordpress has a superb user interface. It's very easy to skin and is flexible enough to be the underlying application for most content-based websites. The menuing system, in particular, is a joy to use (compared to Joomla, which is extremely powerful but complex for the end user - the site administrator).
5. Google Reader - still my collection point for RSS feeds. I haven't found anything better, and I'll certainly never go back to a client-based system. The browser wins again!
6. Googlemail. I've moved away from Apple Mail, as I could never get hold of my emails when I was on the move. Googlemail lets me collect all my email accounts in one place. Search is great, and so is the filtering and filing system. It's only let down by its inability to sort by anything.
7. Jira. I've only got into this issue tracking and project tool recently. It's used by the Moodle development team, and we're also using on other projects. It's excellent for managing distributed teams, whilst keeping all the project information in one place.
8. Balsamiq mockups. If you need to discuss with your client how a site or application will be laid out on the screen, and how the navigation will work, you don't want to be wasting time on colour schemes. Balsamiq mockups gives you a way of creating mockups that look hand-drawn. Allowing you to focus on the important stuff.
9. Moodle. I can't get away from it. Moodle is just well featured and designed around the needs of the teacher. Yes, it's a little clunky in places - but I'll tell you, I've seen far worse! The thing I really like about it is the way it's so easy to integrate with other systems.
10. Visio. My toolkit will always include some means of providing visual representations of complex ideas. That could be Powerpoint, Mind Manager, Freemind, CmapTools, Keynote etc. Each tool is best for a slightly different context and purpose. The one I'm finding myself drawn to more often at the moment (because I'm having to think a lot about processes) is Visio. It's way more powerful than I'm ever going to need, but I haven't got anything better to use as a quick way of producing diagrams and flow charts.