Thursday, August 7, 2008

Top Ten Tech Tools (Summer 2008)

Recently, Jane Hart of the Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies asked me to reflect on my top ten learning technologies, and while I've made sustained use of many tools from my original list (January 7, 2008), a number of new tools have cracked my Top 10. As we head into a new school year, my revised list now includes:

1. ScreenSteps: This is superior and simple to use tutorial creation utility. Great for creating software 'how to' documents as either PDFs or HTML pages.

2. ScreenFlow: Optimized for OS 10.5, this is the most polished screen grab utility on the market today. It's the best tool out there for creating engaging software demos and tutorials.

3. G-Mail: Simple, reliable, sortable, with effective filters (including spam filters) and plenty of room for large files and archives. The included writing tools and survey tools form a significant part of my 'cloud office'.

4. Google Reader: The Google franchise provides a common look/feel for my daily work. It helps that Google makes it simple for me to export/embed my RSS collections.

5. Blogger: I'm here many times a week, as this tool resulted in the genesis of www.thecleversheep.com

6. Twitter: Along with tools like Twhirl, and Twitterific, I leverage this tool to keep in touch with colleagues near and far. There is no other tool that provides as many links to rich content and ideas.

7. Garageband: Since January, I've been producing the Teacher 2.0 Podcast 3-4 times each week using this iLife app. Simple to use, it is a powerful creativity app.

8. Flickr's Creative Commons: I regularly use licensed photos from photographers around the world in my creative work.

9. Adobe Connect: This tool and it's online cousin Adobe ConnectNow continue to allow me to engage in meetings with geographically scattered colleagues, as both host and participant.

10. Keynote: Oooh-la-la! Stunning graphics, transitions and exports to clickable movie files, what more could you ask for in presentation software?

Check out the newly released Top Ten Tech Tools podcast on Teacher 2.0 for more details on these top ten learning technologies.

Photo Credit: David Guzikowski

2 comments:

Bethany Smith said...

Thanks for the list. I've been using SnapZ Pro, but will play with Screencast & Screenflow now!

Rodd Lucier said...

ScreenFlow is the most highly polished screen capture tool out there. Like many Mac apps, it is easy to use, and handles streamed audio and video expertly.

Oh, one more tip Bethany... After trying it out you might want to check the VaraSoft Academic Store page for the slightly discounted price.