TOP 10 TOOLS 2007 & 2008
Cathy Moore

Cathy is an elearning designer and writer who works with clients in the US and Europe. Cathy's blog offers some ideas for lively elearning here - and her main site is www.cathy-moore.com

Cathy's Top 10 Tools as at 12 February 2008

1. Keynote - Great for presentations but also creates interactive Flash files. An overlooked elearning development tool for the Mac

2. TWiki - Powerful open-source wiki aimed at the corporate market. Makes it easy to incorporate media.

3. Tiddlywiki - Small, one-person wiki I use to track clients, projects, and ideas. I have a sample Tiddlywiki here

4. Comic Life - Lets you create comics from stock photos and other images (for Mac; Windows version is in beta)

5. Compendium - Powerful concept mapping tool I use to design courses. It lets you incorporate content from many sources, including PowerPoint, Word, PDFs, and the web. Great for the design stage but could be used to deliver info as well.

6. SnagIt - Powerful screen capture and annotation for Windows

7. Taco - Free, straightforward HTML editor for the Mac

8. YouTube - A good source of ideas for traditional music and dance projects (my sideline).

9. Feedburner - Lets people read blogs as emails rather than through a feed aggregator. Set up by the blog publisher.

10. WordPress - Open-source blogging software. I created previous blogs in TypePad.   WordPress needed a lot more setup time, but it gives me more control over layout and features, and it’s free.

Cathy's Top 10 Tools as at 5 August 2007

1. Keynote - Great for presentations but also creates interactive Flash files. An overlooked elearning development tool for the Mac

2. TWiki - Powerful open-source wiki aimed at the corporate market. Makes it easy to incorporate media.

3. Tiddlywiki - Small, one-person wiki I use to track clients, projects, and ideas. I have a sample Tiddlywiki here

4. Comic Life - Lets you create comics from stock photos and other images (for Mac; Windows version is in beta)

5. Photoshop Elements - A simplified version of Photoshop. It still has a steep learning curve, but at least the options aren't quite so overwhelming.

6. SnagIt - Powerful screen capture and annotation for Windows

7. Taco - Free, straightforward HTML editor for the Mac

8. Articulate Engage - Makes it easy to produce basic Flash interactives in Windows

9. Feedburner - Lets people read blogs as emails rather than through a feed aggregator. Set up by the blog publisher.

10. WordPress - Open-source blogging software. I created previous blogs in TypePad.   WordPress needed a lot more setup time, but it gives me more control over layout and features, and it’s free.