TOP TOOLS 2007, 2008 & 2009
Mark Berthelemy

Mark is a Senior Learning Consultant at Capita Learning & Development and Director & Lead Consultant for Wyver Solutions Ltd.

Mark's Top 10 Tools as at 4 November 2009

Mark has shared his latest top 10 tools list on his blog: Learning Conversations

Mark's Top 10 Tools as at 8 January 2008

1. Firefox. (Open source).  This remains at the top spot. In fact, it's such a central part of my daily learning (both consuming and creating) that I almost put it at the same level as my broadband connection - essential. What's special about it over other browsers? It was the first tabbed browser I used, which completely changed the way I use the web. It's got hundreds of add-ons, including the indispensible web-developer toolbar, Colorzilla (for easily matching colours), Scrapbook (for quickly taking snapshots of webpages for annotating later) and QuickProxy (which, with one click, lets you switch your proxy server on & off).

2. Jing. (Closed source, but free). I'm finding I'm using this more and more. It's similar to Wink, Captivate and Snagit. However, where these are great for producing finished, polished products, Jing just sits there for when it's needed and works quickly. It's ideal for producing "disposable learning objects" (not my term, but it's starting to appear more frequently). If I need to show someone how a software function works, I capture it (either as a single image or a movie - with narration, then can choose whether to publish it to TechSmith's Screencast.com site, to my own ftp site, or to a file. It's simple. It's easy to use. And my clients think it's great.

3. Google Web Search. (Free to use). I know other search engines are available. But I can work Google. I know how to make it produce meaningful results. 95% of the time it does what I need. So why change? Without search, the wealth of information on the web would be like a library with no index: impossible to use effectively. With it, I know that I can learn almost anything when I need to.

4. Google Desktop Search. (Closed source, but free).  Just as I rely on Google web search almost more than my bookmarks, I rely on their desktop search engine to be able to find files and emails rather than wade through layers of folders. It's not infallible - being particularly frustrating when it displays part of an email, but then Outlook can't open it because it's been moved. But this is more than mitigated by the number of times its found a document that I couldn't see anywhere in my file structure.

5. Moodle. (Open source). I've been working with Moodle for four years - since version 1 came out. Although designed to work within a formal education setting, its beauty is in its flexibility. Every organisation, and every person, will use Moodle in a different way. It's would be a particularly mature learning organisation which uses every function of Moodle. Now that we've cracked the way the Moodle theme packs work, we're finding more and more applications for it - particularly in public sector organisations. There are two things that Moodle does not do well. One is handling bookings for face-to-face events, so some sort of Learner records system is an essential component of a complete solution. The other is handling content for use outside of a formal "course"-based delivery. See 6.

6. Joomla. (Open source).   Any organisation that wishes to support learners at their point of need, as well as during formal "courses" needs an effective content management system. It needs to be searchable. It needs to allow administrators (and even users) to add content easily. And it needs to be flexible in terms of appearance and navigation. There are many content management systems out there. The commercial ones are tending to aim at high-end usage; with multi-format publishing, workflows, faceted search etc. For many applications, the range of open source solutions is more than adequate. Each one has its particular strengths; some have highly comprehensive configuration interfaces, some are better for bespoking, some provide immediately usable out-of-the-box solutions. But I had to choose one for this list. Joomla appears to have a strong development team. The modules available, both in the standard package, and as add-ons, are incredibly powerful. It does require careful configuration, and good support, as a complex site can become complex to change. At the moment, though, this is tending to be top of my list for content management.

7. Articulate Engage. (Commercial).   Along with it's big brother, Articulate Presenter, Engage is rapidly becoming a key part of my content development strategy. With Engage, I can quickly produce good-looking Flash-based materials with embedded media navigated using one of a set of pre-defined interfaces. These interfaces include (among others) a timeline, concentric rings, image hotspots, pyramids with layers and FAQs. Yes, you are limited to the interfaces available. But they pretty much cover most situations. I use Engage when I need to deliver something that looks good and covers a small amount of content. As a component part of a content strategy it's ideal.

8. Google Reader. (Free to use). Keeping up-to-date is a rapidly changing field, and knowing what the market is saying about learning, about technology, and about us is critical for success. An RSS reader allows me to do that without having to go to dozens of websites to see if they've got anything new. Google Reader has been my reader of choice for a year now. I can use it from any internet-connected browser. I can organise things just how I want. I can even share particular items, or whole groups of items, with other people in many different ways. I like the way it allows me to choose how I use it - its flexibility.

9. b2evolution. (Open source). I use my blog to reflect on what I'm learning, to add to the conversation about particular topics, and to store ideas and materials that I want to remember. It's an essential part of my personal knowledge management system. I chose to host it on my own webspace as then I control the data within it. It's too important to be left to a free service. And I don't need to pay someone to host it. I chose b2evolution for its flexibility. It's a multi-user, multi-blog system. Very similar to WordpressMU but far easier to install and configure.

10. CmapTools. (Free to certain groups). When I've got some complex ideas to sort out and simplify, I quite often turn to CmapTools. This is a concept mapping tool that allows any concept to link to any other concept, along with linking phrases. Very quickly, a map can become too complex. But then that forces a thought process to simplify it down to its essentials. I often go through that process when preparing presentations or learning materials. It makes sure you only include detail that is relevant

Mark's Top 10 Tools as at 9 July 2007

1. Number one spot has to go to Firefox. It's my window on the web. It's becoming the main place where I find information, create materials and ideas, and collaborate with other people. Since I also create a lot of web-based material it's my principal development assistant. The Web Developer toolbar extension is essential to help troubleshoot tricky layouts.

2. If Firefox is my window on the web, Google Reader is a pair of binoculars. It's the first page I open every day. It allows me to easily keep track with current thinking, and to join in conversations. When used with sites like Blogdigger, I can discover new pockets of expertise very easily.

3. I know Wordpress is a very good blogging platform, but I've worked with b2evolution for a few years now and have found it incredibly stable and capable - and very well supported. It's designed, from the ground up, to offer multiple blogs to multiple individuals and groups. If people are looking for a platform to support reflective CPD I always point them here.

4. Having a good, flexible content management system in your bag is an essential part of being a learning systems provider. They allow you to devolve content production, build navigation automatically, provide search capability, and reuse content in many ways across the site. For me, it was a toss-up between Etomite and Exponent CMS. Both are very good, and highly configurable. Where Etomite steals the show though is it's handling of friendly URLs and its ability to export the whole site to a static set of web-pages. Great for clients that want a large site generated quickly, but don't want to do any editing on it.

5. I don't buy much software; I tend to use what's available in the open-source world. However, when there's nothing out there for free, with the same capabilities, I will spend the money. SnagIt is one of those tools. It's a screen capture tool on steroids. You can very quickly capture a window (or just a portion of a screen, or a pull-down menu), resize it, annotate it, add edge effects like a drop shadow or a torn edge, and save or publish it. For producing quick users guides it's essential.

6. MindManager is another one of those tools that is so well developed that I'm happy to spend money on it. Although FreeMind comes a very close second as an open source alternative. They both allow you to create, edit and publish Mind Maps. Where MindManager wins is its integration with other tools like Word, Outlook and MS Project. It also comes with a number of very usable HTML templates for publishing. You can, very quickly, produce a structured information resource with dozens of pages and a coherent navigation structure.

7. I do a lot of code editing (HTML, CSS, PHP mainly) and I always need a good editor that doesn't get in the way. PSPad is my current choice. It integrates with Windows Explorer nicely, highlights code well and allows me to keep whole projects together in one place.

8. I don't like following the crowd. So I resisted iTunes as long as possible. Until I got a Mac. Until then I'd been using a podcast catcher that sat on my mp3 Player. But I'm afraid Apple's design team won again. The whole way the software integrates with the iTunes webservice is just great. I'm still not an iPod user, so I had to get an additional (free) tool - SyncTunes to pull stuff out of iTunes onto the mp3 player. I rely on podcasts alongside Google Reader to engage with the learning community. It means driving time is not wasted.

9. Google search.  At risk of being boring, I really don't know how I'd do my job without a decent search engine. It's both a research and a problem-solving tool. Nuff said.

10. I spent a long time looking for a system to help manage the accounts for Wyver Solutions. I can learn software pretty easily usually, but every single system seemed to need an in-depth knowledge of accounting terms and practices. The crunch came when I moved to the Mac, and the tool I was using (as best of a bad bunch) would not work on it. I came across KashFlow and tried their two month free trial. It's a web-based system; with all the advantages that brings. They've got the financial backing of a former Secretary of State for Employment, Trade and Industry. I understand it. The support is great. And my accountant likes what comes out at the end. It's not free. But I wouldn't expect a high-quality, robust service to be so.