Karyn is a Blended Learning Solutions Designer/Learning Consultant for Capita Learning & Development in the UK.  Karyn blogs at Karyn's erratic learning journey.

Karyn's Top 10 Tools as at 4 February 2008

1. Firefox - the open source browser that brings the world to my desktop

2. Google search - the means to find out what I want to know, when I want to know it

3. PowerPoint - while I loathe being subjected to what some people delight to call PowerPoint presentations ;-) I love what PowerPoint enables me to do. I can use it for look and feel and it is a powerful tool by means of which to get my ideas across to the production team, and to test the client's reaction to my ideas before starting the actual build work.

4. Google Reader - the means for to keep my finger on the pulse without having to break a sweat!

5. Yahoomail - My private email accounts are both through Yahoo. Convenient, easy to use, and free (apart from the monthly broadband fees, of course). I'm torn between deciding whether it is a blessing or a curse that I can't access my emails offline. Much as I feel deprived, I suspect it's probably a Good Thing!

6. Mindjet Manager - I use this to make notes of meetings and to map out the architecture of solutions I am designing for clients. Empowering and easy to use. There are no doubt free/open source alternatives, but this is what is on offer through my employer. If someone had told me 3 years ago that I would become a mindmapping-type, I would have laughed in their face, but, blow me down, I have - and I don't regret it for a moment!

7. Del.icio.us - This has been the way I have kept track of all the articles and posts I have found that I expect to find useful for my dissertation. What a boon! Not only that, but other people are able to mark things for me, and I can search for things that may be useful using keywords. Much better results than a visit the library - although I don't mean to diss libraries, by any means!

8. Skype - Free international calls, with the capacity to record while you're at it! Does it get better than this? And if you prefer to use text chat, you can always refer back to a chat history to pick up links or to remind yourself of what was said/decided.

9. Second Life - now this is a bit of a cheat, since my exposure has been severely restricted up to now. 2L is blocked at work and my connection at home isn't fast enough for me to use it to any great effect, but my mind is boiling with the potential of this space for learning: formal, informal, corporate, secondary, tertiary...you name it!

10. Wii games - this is also a bit of a cheat, since it's probably more like a hardware answer. I am convinced that there is enormous potential for learning, sports coaching and occupational therapy in this arena - maybe even speech therapy. And since the interface is so intuitive, it doesn't exclude older users as much as other gaming devices. Can't you just see a tennis match between two sliver haired post-stroke patients in a nursing home?

What are your Top 10 Tools for learning?
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Karyn's Top 10 Tools as at 24 July 2007

1.  Firefox.  Well duh! The door to the online world.

2. Google Search.  The means to an end. If ever I want to know anything at all, the kneejerk reaction is to Google it.

3. MS Office XP (Word / Excel / PowerPoint) and Outlook 2003. Grouped together because they are so interconnected. These tools are chosen for me by my employer, but I have no complaints - they do the job and I think Excel is the finest application Microsoft ever produced.

4. Bloglines.  This is the first aggregator I ever tried and, to be honest, I've stuck with them due to lethargy: if it ain't broke... This is how I keep up to date with the 40-odd feeds I read each day. I try to keep the number of feeds manageable, or I find it becomes meaningless.

5. CoComment.  For all its flaws, this keeps me (more or less) up to date with the conversations that arise from the various posts I read. It isn't always reliable, but I haven't found anything that works any better.

6. Yahoo Mail.  For my personal email account. My previous private email account got so splattered with spam that I switched. After a few years, the spammers are slowly finding me again, but the built in filter seems to work pretty well. As an expat far from home with family and friends spread across the world, my personal email is critical to my sanity.

7. Blogger.  The first blogging tool I encountered and still the most intuitive to use, in my opinion. I have been blogging for a shade over 2 years now, and so far, so good.

8. Mindjet Mindmanager.  I use this to plan the structure of online learning resources. It's easy to move bits around and I can work on content at the same time. Sadly, not many of my clients "get" it, so I have to export to Word document when submitting structure and content for review.

9. del.icio.us.  I am studying towards an MA at the moment and find useful bits and pieces in the most unexpected places. It is so great to be able to tag these for future reference with a little "note to self" as to why I found it interesting.

10. Skype.   Invaluable for keeping in touch with colleagues as well as with the far-flung family and friends referred to in #6 above.