TOP 10 TOOLS 2008
Shari Ward

I'm a training and development professional with 20+ (ouch!) years of experience in instructional design, instructor certification, and training management. I recently joined Shriners Hospital for Children in Portland, Oregon, as Manager of Education and Development. I was the second person in my state to achieve the designation of Certified Professional in Learning and Performance (CPLP) through the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD). You can read my blog and browse my online portfolio at www.shari-ward.com.

Shari's Top 10 Tools as at 30 March 2008

1. iGoogle - I have built a dashboard on iGoogle, bringing together all of my favorite web search tools in one place. It is my home page, which allows me to quickly and easily access widgets such as one for look-ups on Dictionary.com, another that monitors and pulls in new posts from my favorite blogs (like Jane's E-Learning Pick of the Day!), as well as news headlines. It helps me with my daily learning.
2. WordPress - I have learned so much about myself and others through blogging, and WordPress makes it easy to do.
3. WikiSpaces - I have built a space that I use as my "electronic filing cabinet" for samples of work I have done. I've also built a space that I use for my online portfolio so that others can learn about the quality and scope of my work.
4. Scribd - Alllows me to upload documents and then share them in a unique electronic format that presents like a book, where you can click to "turn" the pages. I love it!
5. htm2pdf - I just recently became aware of this website that takes web pages and converts them to PDFs. I'm sure it will come in handy!
6. MyLiveSignature - I saw this mentioned in one of your postings and I use it all the time in my blog to give it some pizazz. Thank you!
7. Jott - Michele Martin turned me on to this great service. I always leave voice mails for myself as reminders, but then when I get home I have to listen to the message and write it down. Jott takes my message and sends me an email, nice and neat. Fantastic!
8. All Area Codes - It may sound silly but there are many times I see an area code and have no idea where it is. This site has a numeric listing that makes finding the code a snap.
9. Ning - I am attracted to the concept of social learning and belong to a few social networks. I think it's a great way to learn from others and share one's expertise.
10. Snag-It! - This is one groovy little graphics program. I use it all the time in creating training materials, and have even used it to record a self-study training video for a system application (creates an avi file)