TOP 10 TOOLS 2008
Mark Arnold

Mark is an Educational Technology Specialist based in Ellsworth, ME, USA.

Mark's Top 10 Tools as at 23 March 2008

1. Google Apps for Educators (Google Hosted Services):  I know you have said to include Google tools separately, but that is hard to do when I feel the most powerful educational tool is one that provides access to the collection of services provided through the Google Apps suite... especially now with the addition of Google Sites (currently access to Google Sites requires that you register a Google Apps domain). {Jane's reply: Google Apps does count as one tool as you sign up for the collection rather than the individual tools]
2. Google Sites:  This wiki based service provides the capacity to develop online-learning communities in ways that I feel surpass any of the efforts that many have been making to put the power of community/collaboration in peoples hands.  (ex. Microsoft has likely spent a great deal of time and money to enable the Innovative Teacher Network... yet it falls far short of the quality or potential of Google Sites.)
3. VoiceThread: So easy, so dynamic, so versatile... any tool that allows you to easily mix/mash voice, text, images is a tool that can reshape education.  This is one of my favorites.
4. Skype (Skypcasting): Connecting via voice... after years of being involved in text/image/virtual communities; it is clear that something is left out when you can't hear the human voice.  I find that communities that reach the point of critical analysis, need the capacity to understand the emotion that connected to the passionate/intrinsic reflection and inquiry that leads to meaningful change.  Video Conferencing is one step better, but still is a limiting connection.  Skype helps provide a solution for the next step of collaboration.
5. WorldTV: So simple to create and broadcast... a great tool for organizing the content pieces that litter YouTube and Google Video.  I give them very high marks for rapidly responding to my suggestion of adding TeacherTube as a provider... Many school in the US block video content from YouTube and Google Video.
6. Gmail: I'm not sure this should even be considered email.  To me it represents the only acceptable form of email.
7. Active Worlds Educational Universe:  SecondLife is certainly all the rage, but this virtual worlds environment is far more adept for educational use.  I spent three years developing projects for in this environment.  In five years since, I am yet to see how SecondLife can offer more.  The makers of Active Worlds spent a great deal of time working directly to respond to the needs of educational users.  They have the best VoIP tool for instructional purpose that I have seen... developed specifically for educational use.  Here is a link to an old portfolio of mine that shows ways that this tool can be used.
8. Jing Project:  This screen-capture tool is so easy to use and every top 10 list should include a way to easily share what is happening on-screen.
9. NoteShare: My only reservation about this tool is that it is primarily a Mac tool.  They are behind with development that would allow PC users to exploit the awesome ease of this toolset.  It is one of the most intuitive educational tools I have ever used.  The sharing features and broad capacity to place almost any sort of digital content into a notebook is perfectly aligned intuitively for education.
10. Google Earth:  It certainly is hard to cut off this list at 10 and decide which application will take my last spot, but I feel I could leave google Earth out.  Not only does it provide the most dynamic look at our earth... it has so much existing learning content that has been shaped around it and the potential for so much more.  I could easily see many courses built entirely around its use.