Andrea is the Founder of
LearnPros and
eLearnPros,
and has an
alternate life as the head of RWD
Australia’s eLearning Practice.
Andrea writes "This top 10 was tough to
narrow down, and if it wouldn’t lead to
reams of hate mail, I’d have to say that my
all time top “tool” is really the broad
range of wonderful people and communities
that are always there when I need them –
and provide an incredibly rich resource for
my work and personal learning and for the
clients who learn with me."
Andrea's Top 10 Tools as at 11 August 2007
Skype - I
don’t even know where I’ll be half the time, so this
makes it easy for me to keep up with friends and staff
by chat or voice. Also handy as a file sharing
backup when all else fails.
Firefox -
and everything I hang off it: toolbars, bookmarks,
plug-ins, add-ons, news feeds. I almost never need to
leave it!
del.icio.us
- I can’t remember what I did before I used this
for bookmarks – mine and the gems I get from the many
interestingly-minded bookmark hoarders out there
eSnips - I
used Net Snippets for years to capture web content
snippets for reference. When the creators
discontinued, I tried eSnips and love the extra
functionality
Word /
Excel /
PowerPoint
/ OpenOffice
/
Google Docs - For writing,
collating, preparing presentations, tracking, reporting
– online and offline – I still haven’t found a way to
avoid these tools
GIMP - It’s a
life saver for quick, high quality graphics creation and
editing, and gets an almost daily workout when I’m on
the road and presenting. OPEN SOURCE!!
Cmap
- Until recently, I used ConceptDrawand Inspiration frequently for
mindmapping and concept mapping. I’ve found it
easier to use CMAP for the type of distributed,
collaborative mapping of complex strategies and
learning design patterns that I’m needing a lot more
these days.
Palm Tools - I
record, doodle, take notes, make appointments and
much more on my Palm, so I’m always looking at apps
that make this tool a little more functional.
InfoPack for quickies, and
uPerformfor more polished integrated work. One step system
process captures and simulations, documentation,
rapid elearning development and audio soundtrack
work, it helps when your company’s tools are good
enough to use confidently. In my work, they’re
great for modeling elearning learning designs and
presenting flash demos
What are your
Top 10 tools - for
your own personal working and learning
and/or
creating, delivering or supporting others' learning?
Let us know
