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