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TOP 10 TOOLS 2007, 2008 & 2009
Joan Vinall-Cox

Joan is a social media
and communications consultant. In her business,
JNthWEB,
she is a
writing coach, an editor, and a speaking-skills trainer.
Joan develops courses and lectures on communication skills,
the social media, and web 2.0. She is constantly exploring
the web's communication and learning possibilities
Joan's Top 10 Tools as at 20 April 2009
-
Firefox
- I use Firefox almost constantly, because its many plug-in
possibilities allow me to maneuver quickly and easily for my
work and my personal playing.
-
Wordpress
- I use WordPress for my blog,
WebTools for Learners - - and for my consulting
website -
jnthweb.ca I find the basics easy enough to use
and the more advanced aspects challenging enough to compel
me to learn more. I like the way I can get it to look and
work.
-
del.icio.us
- Social bookmarking is one of the most useful tools on the
web. I can save, tag, and easily re-find sites that are
useful, and I can see what others with similar interests to
mine are saving. It's almost a research assistant!
-
Skitch
- I take screenshots or photos and edit them in Skitch, plus
add arrows or text, and then embed the new image online.
Very easy and handy.
-
iPhone - the computer in my purse. I
can read on the web, play games, record visuals and/or
sound, post photos, phone, check and/or add to my calendar,
and much more, and it's always with me. The only shortcoming
is that adding text is slow and somewhat awkward.
-
Twitter
- I get to know the people whose blogs I follow a little
better by following them and others on Twitter. I can
harvest useful URLs, and get help when I'm struggling with
learning how to create something online, or trying to fix a
misperforming application. And it's just fun!
-
Nambu -
This Twitter tool allows me to watch my Twitter stream,
immediately see answers I've received, messages I've sent,
etc. This allows me to enjoy riding the train or waiting for
a friend or client by fitting Twitter into the cracks in my
schedule.
-
Google Reader - which I've added to Bloglines as one of
my RSS aggregators, using each for different collections.
Both are essential for my ongoing learning about what's
happening and what's available onthe web.
-
FileZilla - a free FTP application to transfer files to
my hosted domains. Useful for updating my domains and those
I set up for others.
-
Gmail - All
my addresses are forwarded into my gmail account, which
makes it convenient for checking my mail. I also use the
gmail Tasks app to help me keep on track and avoid forgeting
essentials
Joan's Top 10 Tools as at 21 July 2008
-
Firefox
- All the wonderful attributes of Firefox 2 plus I can
now close then re-open Firefox and it opens all the tabs
from before closing
-
Wordpress - a very sophisticated but
relatively easy tool for my blog and e-portfolio -
joanvinallcox.wordpress.com/
-
diigo - I'm trying this out to see how it
compares to del.icio.us. So far, it's excellent
-
InstaPaper - currently my temporary step before saving
to Bloglines, (where I'm SemioticExplorer.)
-
Skitch - take screenshots or photos and edit them,
plus add arrows or text, and then embed the new
image online. Very easy and handy.
-
Zotero
- a free, academic, easy-to-use Firefox extension for
collecting, managing, and citing research sources. Very
useful.
-
Wisdomap - an attractive mind-mapping tool
where I can also attach videos, images, files and sites.
Good for planning, and early stage research assignments.
-
TweetDeck - allows me to follow several
Twitter threads simultaneously. I'm at
twitter.com/JoanVinallCox
-
WetPaint - another wiki platform that I'm
trying out to compare with the excellent Wikispaces and
PBWiki
-
Wordle - fun, fun, fun, and a good
discussion starter.
Joan's Top 10 Tools as at 29 January 2008
-
Firefox - I
spend a lot of my day online, and this free downloadable
browser is the one I use
-
Google
- When I have questions, I click on Google
-
Gmail -
my email of choice since my computer crashed and I lost all
my computer-based contacts. Now I really like how tagging my
messages works, and that I can access my messages and
contacts through any online computer.
-
del.icio.us
- I collect and tag lots of sites for future reference and
use. My del.icio.us account is
del.icio.us/shiftingsemiosis - if you are an
educator or an academic, you might want to check out my
tags.
-
Bloglines
- This allows me to follow many educational blogs and
learn about WYSIWYG applications that might be useful for my
own learning or for my teaching. My Bloglines account is
under the name, "SemioticExplorer" and my blogroll is on
this blog of mine -webtoolsforlearners.blogspot.com/
- Twitter is
microblogging and I love the brevity, immediacy, and the way
I can organize it for my interests and collect interesting
URLs through it. You can follow me at
twitter.com/JoanVinallCox
- Wikispaces
is WYSIWYG and the easiest for non-techies to use, so I use
it with my classes and other organizations.
- Zotero is free,
easy-to-use Firefox extension to help collect, manage, and
cite research sources. I'm finding it very useful.
- kwout -
a very handy way to capture text and images for quoting in
blogs and elsewhere online.
- Skitch lets me take screenshots or photos and edit them,
plus add arrows or text and then embed the new image online.
Very easy and handy.
Joan's Top 10 Tools as at 26 July 2007
-
Firefox - I spend
a lot of my day online, and despite a brief flirtation with
Flock, this is the browser I stick with.
-
Google
Search,
Google Scholar,
Gmail,
Google Calendar,
iGoogle,
Blogger – I use all these
parts of the Google empire. I search through my university's
library with Google Scholar; I use gmail since my
computer crashed and I lost all my contacts and now
I really like tagging my messages; we use Google Calendar at
home so we don't double book each other; iGoogle lets me keep my
important bookmarks online; and I keep one of my blogs on
Blogger.
-
del.icio.us -
I collect and tag lots of sites for future reference
and use. Furl is good, but del.icio.us and tagging fit me
better
-
Bloglines -
This allows me to follow many educational blogs and
learn about WYSIWYG
applications that might
be useful for my own
learning or for my
teaching.
-
PB Wiki and
Wikispaces.
Pbwiki
was beautiful in appearance before it was WYSIWYG in
use, so I set up my business website using it.
Wikispaces has been WYSIWYG
longest and is the easiest for non-techies to use,
so I use it with my classes and others.
-
Eduspaces - This is
my blogging community, filled with my peers. I started
blogging there when it was Elgg, and have created
Community Blogs there for classes because even early
on my students could add audio files as well as
discuss readings there.
- Explode - My
social network; it comes from Dave Tosh, Ben Werdmuller and Misja Hoebe, who
created Elgg (now Eduspaces) and so much more. I am
grateful to them.
-
Backpack - I like it because it sends me emails
reminding me of monthly or yearly events I tend to forget,
so I don't get overdrafts or miss birthdays. I use it for
To-Do lists too.
-
Box
- Since my computer crashed, I have been using Box as an
online backup for my most essential files. It's also handy
for sharing large files with clients or friends. Some of my
students have used it to link files to their blog posts.
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Engrade
- Wikis and blogs replaced
everything I used to get from using WebCT, except
being able to privately share marks online. Now
Engrade lets me post students' marks privately.
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