Okay, what are some of the top rated tools for learning? Each year, lists come out, and one such list is published by 
Centre for Learning and Performance Technologies. Its 2011 Top 100 Tools for Learning gives top billing to Twitter, third year in a row. YouTube comes in second followed by Google docs and Skype. Skim the list. Which tools are your favorites? Which have you been meaning to try? Which are ones you have not considered, but pique your interest?
Other online lists of top winners include The Best of the Web, which offers links to find educational online websites across grade levels and subject areas. Check it out. Let us know what you like. There's plenty to explore, given most of the links go to gateway sites, listing a host of resources.
Centre for Learning and Performance Technologies. Its 2011 Top 100 Tools for Learning gives top billing to Twitter, third year in a row. YouTube comes in second followed by Google docs and Skype. Skim the list. Which tools are your favorites? Which have you been meaning to try? Which are ones you have not considered, but pique your interest?Other online lists of top winners include The Best of the Web, which offers links to find educational online websites across grade levels and subject areas. Check it out. Let us know what you like. There's plenty to explore, given most of the links go to gateway sites, listing a host of resources.
Image from: jeffreyhill.typepad.com
3 comments:
What an excellent resource for teachers. I added this site to my Author Share for future use. I have heard of many of these sights, but I have actually worked with very few. One that caught my attention was the Articulate Quizmaker. This free software allows the user to create interactive quizzes with videos, hyperlinks, audio, etc. The software also allows the teacher to direct students to specific questions based on their previous answers. You can also create online polls for your classroom. I have not used the software, but it seems as though it would be an excellent way not only to assess students but to incorporate multiple intelligences into an assessment which sometimes is not easy.
This is an incredible list. I was not surprised to see some of these tools on the list (Twitter, Wikipedia, Google docs, Facebook), and I look forward to researching the different tools that I have never used before (Prezi, Wordpress, Moodle, diigo).
With such an extensive list, it's difficult to highlight any as being more important, but I will comment on two that struck me as the most interesting: Twitter and Skype.
Twitter always seemed to me like a useless social networking site only used by pre-teenagers to follow their favorite heart throb. I have since been illuminated with different stories of educational tweets, including a Twitter reprint of John Adams' journal during his time as a foreign ambassador to France. Needless to say, I can't wait to learn more about integrating Twitter into my future English classrooms.
I am a current user of Skype, and it never occurred to me that it could be used in the classroom. The fact that it is free, and most computers come with a camera installed make it that much simpler. English teachers could set up team debates with other classes across the country, share ideas and feelings about a book with people that may have a different view of the reading based on where they were raised. It could easily bring many different perspectives from many different peers into a single classroom in a single place.
This is a great list for educators. I like how all these sites are listed as personal, education, or for entertainment. I also like that it is categorized. There are many tools I am familiar with on this site, and just as many, (more actually) that I do not know anything about. I am curious about snag it and mindjet. I'm not sure how to do a screencast and I like the mindjet mindmapping tool; it seems interesting. I plan to look into these tools later.
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