TOP 10 TOOLS 2008 & 2009
Rodd Lucier

I've been working in e-Learning since 1999 in various capacities and am currently the regional e-Learning contact for my part of the province of Ontario in Canada.  I'd be interested in sharing my top e-learning tools as you compile the top 100.  If you'd like to see what I've been up to, visit my website or check out my blog.

Rodd's Top 10 Tools as at 25 October  2009

Rodd has updated his list for Fall 2009 in this blog posting

Rodd's Top 10 Tools as at 26 March 2009

1. Blip.tv: Much of the creative work I do in support of e-teachers, is now in the form of video tutorials. For ease of upload, ultra-clear Flash conversions, and the ability to attach Creative Commons licensing to my work, my main PD Channel is at Blip.tv.

2. ScreenFlow: Optimized for OS 10.5, this is still most polished screen capture utility available. It's the best tool out there for creating engaging software demos and tutorials, but for PC users will have to stick with other options.

3. G-Mail: Simple, reliable, sortable, with effective filters (including spam filters) and plenty of room for large files and archives. The included writing tools and survey tools form a significant part of my 'cloud office'.

4. Skype: In communicating with educators around the world, it seems almost too easy to engage in rich conversations for free, courtesy of Skype. Although I also use Google Video Chat, Adobe Connect, iChat, and DimDim, the recent addition of screen-sharing to Skype, makes it my number one tool for connecting!

5. Blogger: I'm here many times a week, as this tool is responsible for hosting my blog: The Clever Sheep.

6. Tweetdeck: In the past, I've listed Twitter as the tool, but as my Twitter habit has led me to make greater use of hashtags and groups, Tweetdeck has become my tool of choice. On my iPhone, it's Twitterific, that I use to keep in touch.

7. Garageband: I've now produced over 170 episodes of my podcast, Teacher 2.0 using this tool, and although I'm now using the iLife '09 version, this app is still a staple in my e-learning work.

8. Compfight: I continue to make frequent use of Flickr's Creative Commons, but the elegant, user-friendly tool I use to access images, is Compfight

9. Keynote: Oooh-la-la! Stunning graphics, transitions and exports to clickable movie files, what more could you ask for in presentation software? I post my completed shows on Slideshare, but the live presentations take full advantage of this polished presentation powerhouse.

10. WetPaint: With so many of my projects calling for collaborative development of e-learning solutions, I've found myself spending more and more time on wikis. With free sites for educators, and unparalleled community tools, WetPaint wikis are the backbone of Twitter for Teachers, and The Golden Fleece Wiki.

Rodd's Top 10 Tools as at 8 August 2008

1. ScreenSteps: This is superior and simple to use tutorial creation utility.  Great for creating software 'how to' documents as either PDFs or HTML pages.

2. ScreenFlow: Optimized for OS 10.5, this is the most polished screen grab utility on the market today.  It's the best tool out there for creating engaging software demos and tutorials.

3. G-Mail: Simple, reliable, sortable, with effective filters (including spam filters) and plenty of room for large files and archives.  The included writing tools and survey tools form a significant part of my cloud office.

4. Google Reader: The Google franchise provides a common look/feel for my daily work.  It helps that Google makes it simple for me to export/embed my RSS collections.

5. Blogger: I'm here many times a week, as this tool resulted in the genesis of www.thecleversheep.com

6. Twitter: Along with tools like Twhirl, and Twitterific, I leverage this tool to keep in touch with colleagues near and far.  There is no other tool that provides as many links to rich content and ideas.

7. Garageband: Since January, I've been producing the Teacher 2.0 Podcast 3-4 times each week using this iLife app.  Simple to use, it is a powerful creativity app.

8. Flickr's Creative Commons: I regularly use licensed photos from photographers around the world in my creative work.

9. Adobe Connect: This tool and it's online cousin Adobe ConnectNow continue to allow me to engage in meetings with geographically scattered colleagues, as both host and participant.

10. Keynote: Oooh-la-la!  Stunning graphics, transitions and exports to clickable movie files, what more could you ask for in presentation software?

Rodd's Top 10 Tools as at 7 January 2008

1. ScreenSteps: This is superior and simple to use tutorial creation utility.  Great for creating software 'how to' documents as either PDFs or HTML pages.

2. iShowU: A simple to use, customizeable screen capture utility.  Great for creating movie-style demos and tutorials.

3. Keynote: Oooh-la-la!  Stunning graphics, transitions and exports to clickable movie files, what more could you ask for in presentation software?

4. G-Mail: Simple, reliable, sortable, with effective filters (including spam filters) and plenty of room for large files and archives.

5. Google Reader: While I used to use Bloglines, I find the Google franchise provides a common look/feel for my daily work.

6. Picturesque: This Mac-simple graphic editing tool allows the user to quickly transform photos to 3-D reflective images.

7. Camino: As a browser on the Mac platform, it simply loads faster than any others... significantly so on my machine.

8. iPhoto: I love creating photobooks... and this tool does an amazing job of it.

9. Hemera Photo-Objects: No longer available thanks to online subscription dollars, the 100,000 photos offer a fantastic variety for graphic creation.

10. Adobe Connect: This tool is provided to Ontario educators by the provincial Ministry of Education and is an amazingly simple tool for hosting collaborative meetings online.