10 (more) great tools
Why 10 more great tools?
It was hard to whittle down my list of favourite, useful and interesting applications for e-learning to just 10. Some of the ‘maybes’ made the list of intriguing tools; others appear as alternatives throughout this site. However, some months after the major presentation on which the top 10 tools collection is based, I realised that there needed to be some more examples, to amplify what I meant by knowledge networking, and also to cover some aspects of the potential uses of knowledge networking which I had ommitted. From this came these ten tools.
I road-tested some of these tools in the knowlege network learning blogshop
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.
Here is a brief overview:
- Todaysmeet – backchannel
- Chartle – graphics and charts
- Metaglossary – meanings and definitions
- Betterme – anonymous feedback
- Grou.ps – communities / networks
- Spaaze – idea boards
- Qhub – Q&A
- Scribblar – shared whiteboard
- Survs – online surveys
- Manyeyes – data visualisation
In each case, I provide a basic overview of the service, and then comment briefly on what the application tells us about knowledge networking. I provide one realistic scenario for use, comment on pedagogic challenges and suggest alternatives and provide additional reading.
