10 great tools
Why 10 great tools?
During the course of my ALTC Fellowship project, I heard a consistent message from many of the participants in workshops which I was using to gather ideas and uses of Web 2.0 in higher education. This message was, simply: what tools should we use? As a result, in 2010, I developed an extensive presentation of what I consider to be 10 great online tools (services or applications) which fit the needs of those asking for advice.
An overview, leading into the specific tool presentation, helps to provide context as to how and why I chose these tools. You can either watch video or review the slides:
What is included?
As you can see from the foldout menu for these 10 tools in the navigation bar at the top of this page, these tools cover a very wide range but all of them have in common that they are relatively easy to use, especially to get started; they are free or as good as free; they emphasise collaboration and online knowledge networking, as well as creative or structured expression of knowledge-based activities. I deliberately avoided tools that required a downloadable component (plug-in or similar), since many universities won’t let students download software within labs and I was keen to emphasise these tools will work anywhere, not just for high-tech online learners.
In some cases, the tools pick up and expand ‘standard’ tools giving what I consider to be a more interesting or useful alternative (for example, Posterous instead of WordPress for blogging); in other cases, the tools really are unique and afford us new possibilities for using internet-oriented knowledge work approaches within learning; and in some other cases, the tools are quite like traditional teaching approaches, but are digital and networked, giving new or expanded opportunities for effective education.
Here is a brief overview:
- Posterous- blogging
- Slinkset – social news
- Quizlet – flashcards
- Wiggio – groupware
- Listphile – lists and sets
- Mind42 – mindmapping
- Reviewbasics – annotation application
- Knol – publishing knowledge
- Xtimeline – timeline creator
- Springnote – better than a wiki
In each case, I provide a basic overview of the service, and then present the original powerpoint slides for each tool, as well as video (courtesy of the University of New South Wales) of me explaining each tool. For each, I provide realistic scenarios in which they can be used, whether for fully online learning or with students on campus, to enhance achievement of learning outcomes.
Should you wish to simply look at the presentations for each tool, all at once, please visit http://slideshare.net/netcrit and select the applications you want to review. A full video, covering most of the tools, delivered at the University of Newcastle can be accessed here
Overall…
These 10 applications show that the web is a rich source of knowledge networking applications which, because learning is knowledge work, can be easily applied to improving the way we educate, whether online or on campus, or both.
