TOP 10 TOOLS 2007, 2008 & 2009
Barry Dahl

Barry is CIO at Lake Superior College in Duluth, MN in the US. He  makes several presentations each year about Web 2.0 tools and other free software useful in educational technology and e-learning.  The following is taken from his email to us:

Barry's Top 10 Tools as at 14 April 2009

1. Twitter – Big jump since last year. I learn something new several times a day and stay connected with people that form my most valuable network. This is the one tool I would choose if I could only keep one (as long as everyone else kept it also!).
2. Firefox – Since most everything I do is web-based, the browser is essential to everything I do. I also use Flock and Chrome, but Firefox is still the best.
3. Zoho Notebook – A truly amazing tool that allows you to mashup different web content in ways never seen before on a web page.
4. flickr - Photo site keeps getting better and better. I have 3,102 photos there (Oct ’08) and growing every week.
5. Wordpress – My blog at barrydahl.com is driven by Wordpress.com, and we also run the multi-user open source version on my campus with great success
6. Netvibes – This has taken the place of iGoogle for me since it has a public page that I can share with others.

7. del.icio.us  - I keep finding more ways to use this productively. Always a big hit in my workshops.
8. Google Reader – Essential tool for keeping up with over 100 feeds, and the shared items page is very useful for providing content inside a VLE.
9. Toondoo - I encourage all educators to add a little creativity to their courses with comic strip creation - and Toondoo is the best tool for that.
10. Picnik - Very solid photo editing tool with several extra bells and whistles and one of the best user interfaces on the web.

Barry's Top 10 tools as at 19 October 2008

1. Firefox – Since most everything I do is web-based, the browser is essential to everything I do. I also use Flock and Chrome, but Firefox is still the best.

2. Zoho Docs – Now a single place to access all my Zoho documents, word processing documents, spreadsheets, presentations, etc.

3. flickr

- Photo site keeps getting better and better. I have 3,102 photos there (Oct ’08) and growing every week.

4. Google Reader – Essential tool for keeping up with over 100 feeds, and the shared items page is very useful for providing content inside a VLE.

5. Netvibes – This has taken the place of iGoogle for me since it has a public page that I can share with others.

6. del.icio.us  - I keep finding more ways to use this productively. Always a big hit in my workshops.

7. Wordpress – My blog at barrydahl.com is driven by Wordpress.com, and we also run the multi-user open source version on my campus with great success.

8. Toondoo - I encourage all educators to add a little creativity to their courses with comic strip creation - and Toondoo is the best tool for that.

9. Twitter - Tweet, tweet, tweet. This has turned into a valuable info network for me, and a great way to stay connected with people I care about.

10. Picnik - Very solid photo editing tool with several extra bells and whistles and one of the best user interfaces on the web.

Barry's Top 10 tools as at 25 January 2008

1. Zoho Writer - Simply the best online word processor and integrates well with the rest of the Zoho suite.

2. flickr
  - Photo site keeps getting better and better. I have 2,301 photos there and growing every week.
3. del.icio.us - I keep finding more ways to use this productively. Always a big hit in my workshops.

4. PBwiki - I almost stopped using wikis about a year ago, but PBwiki brought me back with all kinds of new plug-ins and added functionality, plus it is ad-free for educators

5. Picnik - Very solid photo editing tool with several extra bells and whistles and one of the best user interfaces on the web.

6. Toondoo - I encourage all educators to add a little creativity to their courses with comic strip creation - and Toondoo is the best tool for that.

7. iMeem - More and more full-length songs are available all the time. Make a playlist that adds a musical touch to an online class or just background music when grading tests

8. iGoogle - This is a fantastic start page for Google users. One click away from Gmail, Google Reader, and thousands of widgets to choose from.

9. Blip.tv - YouTube may have more users, but Blip delivers higher quality for embedding in blog posts and web pages.

10. Twitter - Tweet, tweet, tweet.

Additionally, Barry does more complete write-ups on his blog. Here is the category: Top Web Tools

 

Barry also has a blog site called "Free Web-based Tools" that he maintains and uses for the many Web 2.0 workshops that he gives: freewebtools.wordpress.com/

Barry's Top 10 tools as at 6 July 20007

1. Zoho

2. flickr

3. skype

4. Meebo

5. del.icio.us

6. Odeo

7. Audacity

8. Google Earth

9. Bloglines

10. iGoogle

I have a public Zoho document that outlines my Top 12 Tools for 2006.  This is a more compact way of seeing the tools I chose for 2006.

Barry's 2008 list

I also have another doc where I list those that might make my year-end 2007 list. I expect this list to change quite a bit still before the end of the year:

Barry's 2007 list