TOP TOOLS 2008
Jeff Cobb

Jeff Cobb works in business development for LearnSomething and also consults and speaks on topics related to social media, learning, and marketing. He recently released an eBook on Learning 2.0 for Associations, and he blogs regularly at Mission to Learn and Hedgehog & Fox.  His website is at www.jeffthomascobb.com.

Jeff's Top 10 Tools as at 30 March 2008

1. Delicious – Del.icio.us has become one of my primary tools for personal knowledge management. Pretty much anything I find interesting and worth returning to is bookmarked there. http://del.icio.us/jcobbm2l

2. Google Reader – Another key tool for personal knowledge management and daily learning. I hope to start taking more advantage of some of the sharing functionality soon.

3. Audacity  – I’m starting to do much more with audio, and Audacity really is a pretty incredible piece of free software.

4. iTunes – iTunes, in combination with my iPod, is the source for a lot of the content I listen to and view to when traveling.

5. Slideshare  –  Perhaps dangerous as a way of proliferating bad presentations, but also a great resources for finding and sharing great content.

6. Wordpress – My blogging platform of choice. I prefer to have my own installation rather than using WordPress.com.

7. Ning  – I have yet to built a Ning community, but I have participated in a few, and really like this as a tool for setting up a focused social network.

8. PBWiki  – A couple of projects I have worked on lately have used PBWiki as a collaboration tool. It’s hard to beat for ease of use.

9. Articulate Presenter  – For the clients I work with, a tool like Articulate is like a gift from heaven. Combined with Quizmaker and Engage, you can transform PowerPoint into a pretty incredible production tool.

10. StumbleUpon – I am a fan of formal and informal learning. I’m also a fan of flat out random learning that can help prompt new ideas and catalyze creativity. StumbleUpon is a great tool for this purpose.