Thomas is Product Design Architect in the Learning Products division at Element K. He also has eight years experience at Element K as a senior instructional designer and manager of instructional design. He has a BA degree in Philosophy from the University of Rochester, and also did graduate studies in philosophy at Ohio State University

Tom's Top 10 Tools as at 10 February 2008

1. OneNote - This is easily the most important application I use. It is so simple, yet so versatile -- I have completely eliminated the need for post-it notes, scraps of paper, short text files, word docs, etc., to keep track of ideas, projects, goals, research, websites to investigate, and much more. It complements one's email/calendaring application beautifully. Few people besides students and Tablet PC users are very familiar with it -- even though it is great for all computer users, and even can be used collaboratively through shared notebooks on a network share. By now I know many people who use it, and I have yet to meet someone who tried using it for a few weeks who didn't get addicted and then swear by it going forward. Online competitors from Google and Zoho don't compare in terms of features, though having it available "in the cloud" would be nice someday.

2. Outlook -  I had been a long-time Eudora user, but in 2007 I switched to Outlook (when Office 2007 came out). Outlook has so many useful features, and I really like the new Office 2007 ribbon interface (although Outlook only implements it partially). Outlook and OneNote are a very solid combination for keeping all the info I need organized.

3. Google Search - Always my first stop for searching online. I rarely use other general search engines, though I do make use of niche and subject-specific search sites and link directories.

4. RSS - A technology, not a particular tool, RSS feeds are obviously hugely valuable for keeping up with all the content providers -- blogs and others -- that I care about. Without it, I simply wouldn't bother to regularly read many sources of info and opinion.

5. Wikipedia - What can you say? Simply amazing. Flawed to be sure, but that is the nature of beast. You just have to know when to trust what is there and when to get second opinions. I sometimes use Wikipedia as a first source for info, before doing a Google search. And a hat-tip goes to MediaWiki too, the software that runs Wikipedia (and that I've used for corporate wikis as well).

6. Adobe Presenter - Useful for adding audio to a PowerPoint presentation and outputting Flash for the web. It is actually very similar to Articulate Presenter, as both are plugins for PowerPoint and they have nearly identical feature sets. But I prefer Adobe Presenter, for several reasons, but in part because its interfaces are similar to Adobe Captivate -- so once you learn one, you are well on your way to learning the other.

7. Captivate - The easiest tool that I know for creating software demos and even interactive simulations. It has many features, including customizable callouts, prompts, and so on. It makes it relatively easy to integrate audio with the demo/interactive, or to create quizzes. Output is standard Flash.

8. Blogger - There are lots of great blogging apps available. I still use one of the standards here, though others have more features.

9. Amazon.com - I'm adding this to my list in 2008, because in recent years it has grown to be much more than just an online store. Because of its Web 2.0 features, most notably user ratings and reviews, I don't make any major purchases without first going to Amazon (and a few other such sites) to read the good, bad, and ugly from others who have bought the particular product.

10. The written word - I see others have already included this, so I will too. As much time as I spend online, listening to my iPod, using Tivo, or whatever, I do still find the written word -- magazines and newspapers in particular -- to be very valuable and convenient. And I very much prefer those printed items that are also freely available online (e.g. Wired, BusinessWeek), so that I can easily link to articles in my blog, quote from them in emails, and so on

Honorable mention (in no order): GoogleMaps, iTunes, LinkedIn, YouTube, eBay, Word, PowerPoint, Instant Messaging, SnagIt, Notepad

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Tom's Top 10 Tools as at 11 August 2007

1. OneNote - This is easily the most important application I use. It is so simple, yet so versatile -- I have completely eliminated the need for post-it notes, scraps of paper, short text files, word docs, etc., to keep track of ideas, projects, goals, research, websites to investigate, and much more. It complements one's email/calendaring application beautifully. OneNote must be one of the most poorly marketed applications ever, as few people besides students and Tablet PC users are very familiar with it -- even though it is great for all computer users, and even can be used collaboratively through shared notebooks on a network share. By now I know many people who use it, and I have yet to meet someone who tried using it for a few weeks who didn't get addicted and then swear by it going forward

2. Outlook -  I'm a long-time Eudora user who recently switched to Outlook 2007 when Office 2007 came out. Outlook has so many useful features, and I really like the new Office 2007 ribbon interface (although Outlook only implements it partially). Outlook and OneNote are a very solid combination for keeping all the info I need organized

3. Google Search - Always my first stop for searching online. I rarely use other general search engines, though I do make use of niche and subject-specific search sites and link directories

4. Wikipedia - What can you say? Simply amazing. Flawed to be sure, but that is the nature of beast. You just have to know when to trust what is there and when to get second opinions. I sometimes use Wikipedia as a first source for info, before doing a Google search. And a hat-tip goes to MediaWiki too, the software that runs Wikipedia (and that I've used for corporate wikis as well).

5. Captivate - The easiest tool that I know for creating software demos and even interactive simulations. It has many features, including customizable callouts, prompts, and so on. It makes it relatively easy to integrate audio with the demo/interactive, or to create quizzes. Output is standard Flash.

6. Adobe Presenter - The easiest tool that I know for adding audio to a PowerPoint presentation and outputting Flash for the web. It is actually very similar to Articulate Presenter, as both are plugins for PowerPoint and they have nearly identical feature sets. But I prefer Adobe Presenter, for several reasons, but in part because its interfaces are similar to Adobe Captivate -- so once you learn one, you are well on your way to learning the other.

7. Blogger - There are lots of great blogging apps available. I still use one of the standards here, though others have more features.

8. RSS - A technology, not a particular tool, I find RSS feeds to be hugely valuable to keeping up with all the content providers -- blogs and others -- that I care about. Without it, I simply wouldn't bother to regularly read many sources of info and opinion.

9. Internet Explorer 7 - Like Blogger in that space, I realize that many others have moved on to other, arguably better browser applications (Firefox most notably). But I still use IE, and with the new features in IE7 (many of which pre-existed elsewhere), I have little reason to switch right now.

10. The written word - I see others have already included this, so I will too. As much time as I spend online, listening to my iPod, using Tivo, or whatever, I do still find the written word -- magazines and newspapers in particular -- to be very valuable and convenient. And I very much prefer those printed items that are also freely available online (e.g. Wired, BusinessWeek), so that I can easily link to articles in my blog, quote from them in emails, and so on

Honorable mention (in no order): iTunes, LinkedIn, YouTube, eBay, Amazon, Word, PowerPoint, Instant Messaging, Notepad