TOP 10 TOOLS 2008 & 2009
Michael Hanley

Michael Hanley is a training & development consultant from Dublin, Ireland. He has eleven years experience in L&D and is a member of the Irish Institute of Training & Development. He consults, advises on and develops training and elearning solutions for a number of companies and academic institutions. Find out more at the Michael Hanley Consulting web site and the E-Learning Curve Blog.

Michael's Top 10 Tools as at 5 March 2009

1. Adobe Acrobat Connect Enterprise - I could have picked any from the range of Adobe Flash-based content development tools, but I chose this application because of its multi-functionality, and because it manifests what Flash, Presenter, Dreamweaver etc can do. Enables collaboration, content storage, management, distribution, and (a certain degree of) tracking. A powerful content delivery platform to enable learning professionals and organisations distribute informational and training content effectively.
2. Audacity - I recommend this open source tool to Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) who wish to create podcasts and/or software demos when using a Rapid E-Learning approach. It's easy to use, and enables SMEs and training professionals create high quality audio quickly and efficiently.

3. Techsmith Camtasia - A SERIOUS rapid e-learning authoring tool for demonstrations, simulations, evaluation, and scenario-based learning. Would be Number 1 Tool on this list if I went for a merit-based rather than alphabetical format.

4. Blogs - The platform doesn't matter, but the concept of providing a means to create, share, and deliver content is the basis for a new way of learning.

5. Del.icio.us - Personal bookmarking at its best. If, like me you work on a number of machines in a number of locations, it is useful to access stored links and documents from a browser regardless of where you happen to be, once you have an internet connection.

6. MindJet Mind Manager Pro - Mind-mapping - using diagrams used to represent words, ideas, tasks, and concepts linked to and arranged around a central topic (and used to generate, visualize, structure ideas), is central to the way I work, research, organize, solve problems, and make decisions. I built the framework for my MSc. in Education thesis in Mind Manager. It is powerful intermediary in developing ideas, concepts, and course design.

7. Moodle - An institution in institutions! Martin Dougimas's erstwhile thesis project continues to meet the learning management requirements of any number and type of organization. Social Constructivist? Virtual Learning Environment? Easy-to-use? Great Platform.

8. Sony Vegas Video - Easier to use than Premiere, more powerful than MovieMaker; Vegas is my post-production "weapon of choice" for 90% of the video elements that appears in courseware developed in my organisation. Whether you're just "topping and tailing" a piece of video or creating the elements for a sophisticated soft skills course, Vegas is a must.
9. StatCounter - every learning professional knows that "if you can't measure it, you can't manage it". This mantra has an extra resonance in the online learning world. StatCounter is a Web and blog analysis tool that enables me to understand the requirements of learners who use my courseware, as well as how visitors interact with my blog.

10. TextPad - I would have chosen pen and paper, but decided to keep this list digital; TextPad is an advanced text editor that enables users to create and edit text documents, XML, JavaScript and other interpreted content without the extraneous "bloat" of word-processing applications. I find it useful to develop content in this stripped-down environment before transferring to Word, PowerPoint, Blogger or some other application for final enhancement and publishing (this list was created in TextPad, for example).

Michael's Top 10 Tools as at 25 March 2008

1. Audacity - I recommend this open source tools to subject matter experts who wish to create podcasts and / or software demos when using a Rapid E-Learning approach. It's easy to install and use and enables SMEs and training professionals to create high quality audio quickly and efficiently.

2. Adobe Acrobat Connect Enterprise - I could have picked any from the range of Adobe Flash-based content development tools, but I chose this application because of it's multifunctionality, and because it manifests what Flash, Presenter, Dreamweaver etc can do. Enables collaboration, content storage, management, distribution, and (a certain degree of) tracking. A powerful platform to enable learning professionals and organisations to distribute informational and training content effectively.

3. Adobe Captivate - A SERIOUS authoring tool for demos simulations, evaluation, and scenarios-based learning

4. Blogs - The platform doesn't matter, but the concept of providing a means to create, share, and deliver content is the basis for a new way of learning.

5. Del.icio.us - Personal bookmarking at its best. If, like me you work on a number of machines in a number of locations, it is useful to access stored links and documents from a browser regardless of where you happen to be, once you have an internet connection.

6. MindJet Mind Manager Pro - I built the framework for my Master's thesis in Mind Manager. A powerful intermediary in developing ideas, concepts, and course design.

7. Moodle - Already an institution in institutions! Martin Dougimas's erstwhile thesis project continues to meet the learning management requirements of any number and type of organisation. I just love the idea of framing Social Constructivism in such an useful environment.

8. PageRank - A technology that has its critics, but provides us with the ability to carry out a search in Google, MSN, Yahoo! etc safe in the knowledge that the returned results are not just an undifferentiated list of keyword hits, thus enhancing the relevance of the search.

9. Sony Vegas Video - Easier to use than Premiere, more powerful than MovieMaker; Vegas is my post-production "weapon of choice" for 90% of the video elements that appears in courseware developed in my organisation. Whether you're just "topping and tailing" a piece of video or creating the elements for a sophisticated soft skills course, Vegas is a must. 

10. TextPad - I would have chosen pen and paper, but decided to keep this list digital; TextPad is an advanced text editor that enables users to create and edit text documents, XML, JavaScript and other interpreted content without the extraneous "bloat" of word-processing applications. I find it useful to develop content in this stripped-down environment before transferring to Word, PowerPoint, Blogger or some other application for final enhancement and publishing (this list was created in TextPad, for example).