TOP 10 TOOLS 2007, 2008 & 2009
Christy Tucker

Christy is an instructional designer for Performance Learning Systems, where she develops online graduate courses for K-12 teachers.  Christy blogs at Experiencing E-Learning.

Christy's Top 10 Tools as at 24 April 2008

Christy has blogged about her 2009 list in a posting at Experiencing Learning.  Her 10 tools are summarised here:

1. Google Reader

2. Wordpress

3. diigo

4. Wikipedia

5. Google Docs

6. Dreamweaver

7. Adobe Captivate

8. Sakai

9. Wikispaces

10. Skype

Christy's Top 10 Tools as at 12 January 2008

1. Firefox is the first application I start in the morning, and it stays open basically all day. It’s the way I access most of the rest of the tools on this list.

2. Google Reader is my RSS reader of choice. Last month I wrote about how RSS is one of my primary personal learning tools. Reading RSS feeds gives me a constant flow of information to absorb and a route to interact with so many great people in the blogosphere.

3. Wordpress is my blogging platform and therefore another important tool for personal learning. What I learned about learning in 2007 is how much RSS and blogging really have enhanced my own lifelong learning efforts.

4. Gmail is a productivity tool for me more than a learning tool, but it is one of my favorites and I use it constantly.

5. Google Docs is one of the main tools for collaborating with SMEs (Subject Matter Experts) during the course development process.

6. Dreamweaver is where nearly all of the final content I develop for courses is created. The content from the Google Docs with SMEs is put into webpages, then those webpages are used within our LMS. It’s not the typical process flow, but it works for our instructor-led graduate courses.

7. Captivate is how I develop self-paced e-learning content that is embedded within the instructor-led courses. Sometimes this is as simple as a graphic or flow chart with rollovers or hotspots; sometimes it’s a complex branching scenario. Captivate’s a good tool for all of it.

8. Diigo is my primary social bookmarking tool and how I generate my daily bookmark posts for my blog. I do so much online research for both the courses I develop and for my own personal learning; a good system to track all the resources I find is indispensable. Diigo’s also improved a lot since I started using it, and they’ve learned to take user feedback seriously.

9. Working from home, Skype is one of my connecting lines to the world. I use it to chat with and call SMEs as well as the other members of the online course development team.

10. I track everything I need to do for developing courses and personal tasks in Toodledo. The ability to sort tasks into contexts (work, home, blog, etc.) as well as folders (one for each course or project) means I can stay organized without getting overwhelmed. This is my personal project management tool.

Christy's Top 10 Tools as at 20 July 2007

1. Firefox: I started using Firefox as my browser because it's more stable and faster than IE, and has been since it was called Mozilla and was only in beta. Having the ability to add extensions and customize the application is what really keeps me using it.

2. Gmail: I've used a number of web-based email programs, but Gmail is by far my favorite. Sorting by conversations is much easier to follow, plus of course the search ability is great. I also use the Better Gmail  Firefox add-on to tweak the interface, improve security, and add features.

3. Google Reader: I admit it; I check my Google Reader pretty obsessively. I know that I simply wouldn't read and learn as much without it. I star posts to remind myself to review a post or write about it later. My shared posts are shown on my blog to point out interesting reads.

4. Wikispaces: I've never met any of my coworkers in person; everyone on our team telecommutes. Wikispaces is one of our primary documentation and collaboration tools. It's easy to post tips, resources, processes, and brainstorming. The RSS feed lets me know whenever changes are made, which is a huge help

5. Google Docs & Spreadsheets:  know that the Google love must be getting a bit tiresome, but Google Docs really makes collaboration easier. During the course development process, it's more convenient to use Google Docs than for my SME (Subject Matter Expert) and me to send dozens of Word attachments back and forth. I always know we both have the most current version of our documents. The formatting is quirky, especially when moving documents back and forth between Word and Google Docs, and the Revision Tracking seems a little clunky as well. It isn't my first choice for a polished final document, but for building the drafts along the way it's very effective.

6. Dreamweaver: I know that Jane's E-Learning Pick of the Day is usually a web-based service, but Dreamweaver really is the best choice for my needs developing online courses. Library files that automatically update multiple files across a course are huge timesavers

7. Skype: Skype has been an indispensable collaboration tool for our team. We use it for weekly meetings as well as quick calls and chats.

8. Captivate: Captivate is my first choice for developing software application training. I was amazed at how quickly I could put together a rough interactive simulation the first time I tried it. For non-software training, Captivate is good but not outstanding. However, the more time I spend with it, the more I discover is possible.

9. Pidgin: For instant messaging, I use Pidgin (formerly Gaim). This is an open source application which allows you to view multiple IM accounts from several places in a single window. I use Google Talk, AIM, Yahoo, and MSN, and I'd hate to have that many windows open all the time. Pidgin simplifies that for me.

10. diigo: I use Diigo as my primary social bookmarking tool. The daily blog posting has better formatting than other tools, and I have more control because I can post as a draft first. The blog post also includes my highlighted quotes from the page. The forwarding feature is a quick way to share sites with others.