Top 100 Tools for Learning 2010

Last week I put in my choices listing my 10 top technology tools to help build the Top 100 Tools for Learning 2010.  

Jane Hart has, since 2007, been building an annual Top 100 Tools for Learning list based on the contributions of learning professionals worldwide.  She has asked learning professionals worldwide (e.g. teacher, academic, trainer, consultant, developer, practitioner, analyst, etc) and active in the field of e-learning, to put down their choices.

She has now compiled her annual list Top Tools for Learning and you can review it. I always find the results interesting, especially seeing the changes, what is up and what has gone down. She has again created a Winners & Losers 2010 page showing the tools that have gone up and down the list or fallen off it completely or are new entrants this year.

I put in my choices and it forced me to create a top 10. I found this very difficult to do. Although a few tools stood out and were constantly in use by me on a daily basis, the next level down is probably broader/more extensive. I also forgot to put in Corel photo-paint, probably because I use it so constantly to resize images for web use that I don’t even think about it. Also forgot YouTube and I probably should have put that one in too.

Top100 Tools for Learning 2010

View more presentations from Jane Hart.

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Useful sites (weekly)

From Flickr Uploaded 2009-10-26 by vicky_n

• ClassChats.com ~ Connecting Students, Teachers, and Classrooms Worldwide  This is a social network that has been set up to help educators connect world wide. Many teachers are starting to use this site to match up with other classrooms and skype and video conference between them. Classrooms can communicate via chat, webcam, interactive whiteboard, forum posts, and more.

•   12 Key Messages for Education in a Social Media Age by Blog By Carol In June 2009, Edelman convened 100+ professors of communication, journalism, business and pubic relations to discuss how companies and organisations effectively engage with their stake holders through social media

• Social Media for Education Informative slideshow on the uses of social media in the classroom. It is helpful in identifying uses to which social media can be put for research purposes

• Intute – Blog – A Bakers Dozen of Practical Podcasting Tips Simple tips for producing a better quality audio podcast

• Educator Pln Twitter List by Shelly S Terrell on Listorious 

• Mashpedia, the real-time encyclopedia This tool matches reference articles from Wikipedia to materials from other sources like YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, Digg, etc.. The purpose of drawing materials from multiple sources is to provide users with a comprehensive view of news stories and reference topics. 

• FlockDraw FlockDraw is a simple service that allows people to quickly and easily collaborate on the creation of a drawing. To use FlockDraw simply visit the site, click the “start drawing” button, and start drawing. To invite other people to draw with you, just send them the url assigned to your drawing board.

• WiseMapping | Visual Thinking Evolution “Wise Mapping is a free collaborative mind mapping tool. Wise Mapping has fairly easy to use editing and sharing functions. Each cell created in a Wise Mapping mind map can be dragged and moved around in the mind map without losing any text or text formatting. Wise Mapping lets users collaborate on the creation of mind map. Mind maps made on Wise Mapping can be shared with others via email, url link, or be embedded into your blog or website.”

• Enterprise Social Software | Wikis, Microblogging & Feeds – CubeTree CubeTree is a free service designed for companies that would like to build a social network of wikis, shared items, and microblogs for their employees. On CubeTree anyone can create a network and invite colleagues. All colleagues must have the same email domain.

• Jabbster | Your private online meeting place Jabbster is a free service that allows groups to create private online communication networks. Within your private network you can host discussion boards, share photos, post an event calendar, and share bookmarks. Setting up a Jabbster group is quick and easy: register for an account, name your group, and send invitations to the people you want in the group. If you create the group, you are the group administrator and can delete any content or user from the group at any time.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

School libraries – their design and use

Thanks to a tweet by Ruth Buchanan about a post on her Skerricks  blog I found this video. It can be found here. (You are supposed to be able to embed it into a WordPress blog but it didn’t work for me so I have put in some screen grabs but they don’t really do the video justice.)

The video aims to contribute to the design and development of visually stunning, fit-for-purpose libraries that support 21st century learning in extended school settings. It shows the contribution an effective library can make to the educational, creative, emotional & reading development of children and young people, and the aspects of design that can enable this.

This 28 minute (UK)  video was funded by CILIP School Libraries Group and MLA (Museums Libraries and Archives Council), the DVD features Stephen Heppell, Les Watson (Education Adviser), students, teachers and managers from a diverse group of schools and settings. Each person has a unique view of school libraries but all are convinced of the important role for the school library and teacher librarians to support learning. They articulate the view that teacher librarians and good school libraries are very important for developing student learning and argue their case very convincingly. Stephen Heppell – “libraries are places that can inspire thinking and encourage collaboration” A Queensland example is also mentioned!

The discussion centres on 21st century learning and the skills that will be needed and how libraries (and teacher librarians) can make a positive contribution to learning. The “how” and “what” will be needed as we progress further into this century. The video has many examples library spaces and possibilities. It examines how students and other library users find these and looks at what they want as well as how school library staff (and teachers) find meet these requirements, the architects of new library spaces must be encouraged to throw out their old, historical ideas and look at the use of libraries now and in the future. There are some great quotes, one that I like in particular is “we must be careful and make sue that we do not disable the future.”  

The video is very positive. As I have been thinking about the SLAV submission to the National Parliamentary Inquiry into school libraries and teacher-librarians in Australian school, so many of the things mentioned in the video are relevant and supportive of what we are trying to do.

This video is worth watching and listening to for its positive views on the importance of school library spaces and services to learning, now and into the future.

A last quote – Learning is about lighting sparks rather than filling vessels

Top Tools for Learning

It is that time of the year again. There are lists popping up everywhere. I started reading this last week and it coincided with some discussions about digital tools in other forums at work.

The Jane Hart has compiled her annual list Top Tools for Learning. It is always interesting to note the changes, what is up and what has gone down The Top 100 Tools For Learning 2009  can be found on this page as a list and also as a slide show. This final list (Nov 15th) has been compiled from the Top 10 Tool Contributions of 278 learning professionals worldwide.

Top 100 Tools for Learning 2009

View more documents from Jane Hart.

There have been debates about what should be and what is allowed to be used in schools. Recently one principal was asking about what should teachers be allowed to access whilst they are at work. She was basing her question around reports that many workplaces were banning social networking tools. I am disappointed some of the comments made by some educators, teachers and admin people. Many of those who can’t/don’t see the point are those that are not using these tools. They often have not tried to see what others may be doing and also seem to simply think Facebook or Twitter are all there is. They base their ideas around some of the more sensational news media reports without any or very little actual experience of the tools. I cannot believe that any learning (curriculum) decisions based on such limited and weighted information are going to create 21st century learning experiences in schools.

I find that I use many social networking tools to help me with my everyday work. Many times I have been able to obtain answers to my questions, help with problems and notice about interesting articles, events, etc. via twitter or other online devices. My personal learning network has increased amazingly over the past 18 months and I rely on it as one of the key ways to  keep my professional learning/skills up-to-date.

The Big Bang – Briefly

Science can be amazing. There are many inspiring stories and so many ways to tell them. This video story is about The Big Bang – Briefly.

We made this video about the Big Bang because the theory is important and amazing, but often misunderstood.
This video was produced without any funding from any outside sources. It was put together with donated creative time from a group with a desire to further public cognition of science.

There are many comments about the video onYouTube. I am amazed at how animated some people get, especially about this area in science. However this is a nice explanation.