-
iPhone Apps – its email
function is shaky compared to the Blackberry, but
the apps open a whole new dimension to the iPhone,
one that I’m only just starting to exploit. I have
no doubt that we are going to start to see Apps as a
major channel for learning in the coming months.
-
My Blog (WordPress) –
WordPress is a phenomenally easy way to get your
thoughts online. Keeping a blog is helping me to
refine my scatter-brain thoughts into a coherent
stream of concepts and ideas. (www.ht2.org/ben)
-
Prezi – This should be the
death of PowerPoint in my opinion. Not that PP is a
terrible tool, but the way it inherently asks you to
make a presentation (with bullets in a linear
fashion) is just plain wrong in my opinion. Prezi is
much better to give users a non-linear presentation
which networks your concepts together. Plus it looks
great and embodies what a great SaaS experience
should be – innovative and truly adding value to the
process.
-
LearningFootprint.com
Calculator
– a bit of a self plug, but we use the calculator to
illustrate quickly and easily just what an impact
travel has on the carbon output of an organisations
training function. It’s free and easy to use.
-
TweetDeck – I registered for
Twitter back in 2008, but didn’t start using it
until this year, when I downloaded Tweetdeck. It has
transformed the way I research online. I like to
think of it as a personalised RSS feed, with added
interactivity to boot! And now it taps into my
Facebook, its going from strength to strength.
Twitter -
@bbetts
-
Firefox Plugins – Firebug. If
Internet Explorer had Firebug it would actually be
useable as a developers tool. That’s how good
Firebug is. Invaluable in both developing websites
and teaching others how good (or bad!) coding works.
-
Firefox Plugins – Fireshot. A
great way to get full screen-shots of whatever
content is on your screen, without the need to deal
with scrolling or cropping (especially useful when
you run multiple monitors).
-
Adobe Flash – I’ve tried lots
and lots of tools to develop bespoke content and
many are good, but none of them touch Flash in the
end. It’s a steep learning curve, but its
integration with XML and ties to RIA’s mean that
there really is no substitute for knowing Flash
inside out to create great learning content.
-
Wikipedia – whenever I don’t
know an answer (which is VERY frequently), my first
stop is Wikipedia. You need to coordinate your
opinions to many sources in order to form any sort
of coherent or fully informed answers, but I would
always start here and work my way out.
-
iStockPhoto – hands down it’s
the best tool for acquiring images to use in
training materials; more and more I’ve been getting
complex vectors from the website and modifying to my
own requirements, which is vastly quicker than
drawing from scratch.
