Jane's Pick of the Day

Top 100 Tools for Learning 2008

I have now finalised the Top 100 Tools for Learning 2008 list based on the contributions of 223 learning professionals worldwide.

The list is available online at www.c4lpt.co.uk/recommended/top100.html or as an embeddable slideshow (see below) or as a PDF to download.

I have also sorted the tools into categories, and this table also shows the top tool in each category as well as the top free tool, if different.  This list is available at Toolset for Learning 2009

Top 100 Tools for Learning 2008

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: elearning learning)

The final Top 10 Tools lists for 2008

Yesterday, the Top 10 Tools lists closed, so that I can finalise the Top 100 Tools for Learning 2008 - available shortly.  Here are the final contributors to the list:

• Karyn Romeis  - Karyn is an independent learning and development consultant operating under the name Learning Anorak. 
  
• Gabriela Grosseck -  Gabriela is a senior lecturer in the Department of Modern Languages and Social Informatics at the West University of Timisoara in  Romania.
• Mark Rollins - Mark offers e-Learning training through a variety of online/onsite Moodle courses
• David Brim - Dave is co-founder and CEO of GroupTable
• Christopher Jack - Chris is Senior Interactive Assessment developer @ the University of Derby
• Helen Whitehead - Helen is an elearning and social media consultant, trainer, writer and researcher
• Elaine Talbert - Elaine is a secondary school principal, currently the manager of the Web Filter Unit in the IT Directorate of the NSW Department of Education
• Stuart Ball - Stuart is a former Primary School Deputy Headteacher, and now manages the Microsoft Innovative Teachers Network
• Barry Sampson - Barry is an independent consulting and developer working across the fields of elearning, social media and ecommerce
• David Simpson - David is Professor of Pschology at Carroll University (WI)

This week's Top 10 Tools lists

This week, contributions and updates to the Top 10 Tools lists have come from:

• Barry Dahl - Barry is CIO at Lake Superior College, Duluth, MN, USA. 
• Antonio Vantaggiato - Antonio is Professor of Computer Science at Sacred Heart University in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
• Chris Jackson - Chris is a literacy and numeracy support lecturer at The Manchester College in the UK.
• Damien DeBarra - Damien works at NCALT, leading a team of Instructional Designers, to deliver learning to the 43 Police services of England and Wales
• Mark Aberdour - Mark is founder and CEO of Kineo Open Source
• Cammy Bean  - Cammy is the Manager of Instructional Design at InVision Learning in Westborough, Massachusetts in the US

Don't forget!  The Top 10 Tools list closes on Friday 31 October. If you haven't yet shared your 10 favourite tools, then this is your last chance to share your tools this year.

2 weeks to go ...

It's two weeks until I close the Top 10 lists this year to finalise the 2008 Top 100 Tools for Learning list, so please share or update your own list before then.

Recent contribtions and updates have come from:

• Paulo Simões -  Paulo is an Officer in the Portuguese Air Force and is the administrator of the LMS of the Portuguese Air Force.
• Inez Hoeijmakers - Inez is an Educational Advisor at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium
• Anon11 - Anon11 is a software vendor/provider from China
• Anon12 - Anon12 is a retired principal and university instructor from the USA
• Michelle Gallen - Michelle is a  Belfast-based e-learning consultant who has been in copywriting and e-Learning since 1998
• Anon13 - Anon13 is a learning content developer from the USA
• Anon14 - Anon14 is a college professor from the USA
• Malinka Ivanova - Malinka is a lecturer at the Technical University in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Top 10 Tools for Learning

Some updated tools lists this week from:

• Nick Hood  -  Nick is a physics and mathematics teacher in Fife, with 25 years in industry.
• Debbie Gascoyne - Debbie is an English instructor and E-Learning facilitator at Camosun College in Victoria, BC, Canada
• Audrey J Williams  -  Audrey is Director of Educational Technology Services at Pellissippi State Tec

One new tools list this week from:

• Tiago Goncalves
  Tiago is an instructional designer at LearnAbout in Portugal

Please note that I am going to be closing the Top 10 Tools list activity on Friday 31 October 2008, in order to finalise the Top 100 Tools list for this year.  Please do share your favourites or update your list before that time. Here's how.

2 milestones passed this week

Two significant milestones passed this week:

Firstly, there are now over 2,500 tools listed in the Directory of Learning Tools.  Tool No 2,500 was  amCharts - a charting tool - which I also posted about in the LearnTech News.

Secondly, over 200 Top 10 Tools lists have now been shared.  Contributor No 200 was Marcel de Leeuwe, who works for a publisher of multimedia primary education in the Netherlands. 

There have also been new contributions from:

• Ion Georgescu - a trainer and consultant working with the Romanian Institute of Training in Bucharest, Romania; and
  
• Pat Parslow - a Researcher at OdinLab, School of Systems Engineering, University of Reading.

as well as updated lists from:

• Glen Gatin  - Glen is from Manitoba, Canada, and teaches a MEd. Course called ICT for Teachers
• Zaid Alsagoff  - Zaid is the e-Learning Manager for INCEIF
• Tim Schlotfeldt - Tim is a German based e-learning specialist with a strong focus on informal learning
• Stylianos Mystakidis - Stylianos is based in the University of Patras in Greece where he develops e-learning courses in the field of facilities management
• Larry Ferlazzo - Larry teaches English Language Learners and native-English speakers at Luther Burbank High School in Sacramento, California in the US
• Kevin Jones - Kevin is a Training Manager for a software company based in Portland, OR. in the US

Some recent Top 10 Tools lists

2 updated Top 10 Tools lists from:

• Janet Clarey - a Senior Researcher at Brandon Hall Research
• Hans de Zwart - an e-Learning Consultant at Stoas Learning in the Netherlands

7 new lists from

• Doug Belshaw - a history teacher and E-Learning Staff tutor at an English secondary school
• Jane Challinor - a Programme Leader for De Montfort University in Leicester
• Caryl Oliver - a leader in Australia in mobile learning and she is a freelance consultant to educators
• 4 Anononymous contributions from a learning professional in Switzerland, a graphic designer from the United States, someone who provides support to HE in the United Kingdom, and a sosftware provider in the United States

There have now been 199 contributors, who would like to be contributor No 200?

Updates to Top 10 Tools Lists

There have been 4 updated Top 10 Tools lists this week from:

• John Shaffer - John is an educational technologist based in Austin, Texas, USA
• Clark Quinn - Clark is the Executive Director of Quinnovation, an eLearning consultancy in the US.
• Bruce Richards - Bruce is the Research and Instructional Design Coordinator at the Office of Sponsored Research and Programs at Missouri State University in Springfield, Missouri.
• David Sugden - David works across the UK as an independent e-Learning specialist. 

Plus one new list from Anon4 - a software provider/vendor from the USA

Please do share your 10 favourite tools for learning or performance/productivty support.

Some more Top 10 Tools lists

This week has seen the following new and updated Top 10 Tools lists:

• Kate Foy (updated list) - Kate is Associate Professor and Deputy Dean Faculty of Arts at the University of Southern Queensland in Australia
• Jay Cross (updated list) - Jay helps organizations improve performance by marrying informal learning to web 2.0.
• Patricia Donaghy (updated list) - Patricia teaches ICT to a wide range of students at Inchicore College of Further Education in Dublin, Ireland, and is also the ICT co-ordinator.
• Wilfred Rubens (updated list) - Wilfred works as a consultant in the field of adult and vocational education in the Netherlands
• Carol Cooper-Taylor (new list) - Carol recently went into semi retirement and now has time to spend on the aspects of eLearning/eTeaching that she loves
• Leigh Zeitz (updated list) - Leigh is an Associate Professor of Instructional Technology at the University of Northern Iowa. 

Top 10 Tools: more entries and updates on the Top 100 Tools list

More Top 10 Tools lists this week:

Updated lists from

• Clive Shepherd (the well-known learning consultant from the UK)
• Anol Bhattacharya (the COO of GetIT | Comms, Singapore)
• Manish Mohan (the head of the Talent Development Campus initiative at NIIT, New Delhi, India,
• Britt Watwood (the online learning specialist at Virginia Commonwealth University's Center for Teaching Excellence in Richmond VA in the US)
• Rick Lillie (an accounting professor at California State University, San Bernardin)
• Rodd Lucier (the regional e-Learning contact for his part of the province of Ontario in Canada)

New lists from:

• Mary Cooch (a teacher in the UK)
• Karl Goddard (who provides ICT/VLE support in the UK)
• Ignatia/Inge de Waard (the eLearning coordinator at the Institute of TropicalMedicine in Antwerp)
• a Learning Consultant in Switzerland and a Learning & Development Manager in France

With these and the other entries, we are already beginning to see changes to the Top 100 Tools for Learning,  for instance:

• the entry onto the list of mobile tools and services (like find.mobi, fring, Qik and Utterz) and mobile versions of key tools (like flickr, YouTube, Google Maps) as well as mobile browsers (like Opera Mini)
• Twitter becoming more and more popular (this week in 15th postion ahead of tools like YouTube,  iGoogle and SlideShare)

Thanks to all the contributors - past, present and future - who have shared their lists to help us to see emerging patterns and trends in the use of tools and technologies for learning and performance support.