TOP 10 TOOLS 2008
Janice Petosky

I've been in education, training, and instructional design for 20 years. I have taught in public and private school systems around the United States and in Germany. Currently, I an an instructional designer and developer primarily creating leadership development programs in West Chester, Pennsylvania. I design and develop multimedia learning applications as well as design, develop, and deliver classroom experiences

Janice's Top 10 Tools as at 16 March 2008

1. Flash - I love this tool because it's flexible. Yeah, it's not easy to learn but once you learn action script, you never want to go back to restrictive "template" type tools. It makes interactive, non-linear eLearning cool.

2. Facebook - When training people around the globe, building social connections between learners is critical. Facebook helps learners put a face with a name and learn personal fact about other learners.

3. Delicious - I personally use this tool to keep up with what other people in the field are doing. There's so much information out there on the internet that it's overwhelming to find the really useful stuff. Being about to find other people who are passionate about the same things I am and being able to look at their list of links is priceless!

4. iGoogle - This is a personal learning environment favorite of mine simply because I can organize my favorites on my home page.

5. Google Sticky Notes - I love this because I can collect web notes and type out my ideas in one place and access my list from all computers.

6. iPod - I can create podcasts that people can download and learn from. I also love that audio  books can be played on my iPod
7. iTunes - easy to use, tons of stuff to download and learn from - books, podcasts, video

8. Ning - I use this to create social spaces for my learners

9. VoiceThread - I love the collaboration feature of this tool. It's great for digitalstories and even greater because participants can comment on each other's stuff...with audio!

10. Wordpress - Blogs are great for learning from others, reflection, story sharing, facilitating connections among people, philosophizing, and much more!