you can do everything well………….so pick a few, and stick with them.
Just recently, a friend comment prompted me to go visit a site: Top 100 Tools for Learning 2008 (http://janeknight.typepad.com/pick/2008/11/top-100-tools-for-learning-2008.html)
So I wandered over and looked through the Slideshare and began to make tally marks for the ones I had used or had investigated just a bit. When I counted the tallys — the number was 97.
Now, for you, if that was your number….you might have been pretty pleased. But for myself, it was ridiculous. I know my limits and I know when I push them too far.
Personally for me…..it isn’t the man with the most toys that wins….it is the man who knows how to control what he has that wins………and for me………my tool box of internet toys has diminished over the last few months….and if anything, I think I am not only happier, but I think I am much more productive with what I do because I know my personal limits.
So, for now, these are the tools I play with……..the tools I know pretty well, but get to know each even better each time I use them.
Delicious: My number 1 tool. I use it both personally and professionally. I use it as I am planning future changes in my life as well as creating a database of “helps” for the teachers at my school (and for myself as well.) My favorite category is “Comebacktolater”. This is where I put all the sites that I see on blogs/twits/presentations that I just don’t have time to come to, but will soon. I check my network of friends daily to see what gems they have found and think the subscription option is just fantastic!! I even bundled tags but that was because I just wanted to see how it worked……basically simple tags work just fine for me.
Google Earth: We are using this for the Holiday Card Exchange Project as well as for the Little House On The Prairie project in March. I am getting quite familiar with making tours and am looking forward to using overlays more often and successfully. I have created a wiki of resources and my delcious count for Google Earth right now is at 147. I see the crossover from Google Earth to Google Maps — but right now, I am concentrating on Google Earth.
PBWiki: Though I enjoy what wikispaces offers (sometimes more than PBWiki), I have chosen to use PBWIKI as my preferred Wiki of Choice. I am getting braver with going to the PLUGIN area. I am beginning to use wiki’s more than my own webpage and enjoy and appreciate the availabity of sharing my resouces with you.
Twitter: Tried Plurk…..like Twitter. I learned to control twitter and not let it control me. I am DMing much more than twittering (especially when I am talking directly to just one person) and stop and think often “if this was the last twitter I ever twitted – would I be content?” That thought is making me much more productive and much less reactionary with the my use of twitter.
Paint Shop Pro: I can take screen shots, create animated gifs, and do pretty much everything I can if I were using PhotoShop. But PS was frustrating to me…….and then I realized I already had something that was working just fine. To add a new program just to say that I knew it was not only silly but prideful. I am content with PSP — have been for over 8 years now. It works for me.
Those pretty much are the 5 tools I use most often. Sure, I have 100 options (actually thousands of options) available to use……..but for now…..I am sticking with 5 that I call my favorites. I might wander in and out of others as necessary (like voice thread, camtasia, google docs) but all in all…….the 5 I use work for me.
And if you ever need help with any of them, just let me know.
So — if you could only choose 5 — what would you choose?
Jen
You are so very right. I really overdo the whole software thing and as a result spread myself too thin. My problem is that I am a multimedia teacher as well as English and geography. Can I have 5 apps per subject?
Best to stick to the rules I suppose.
1. Delicious
2. Firefox
3. MediaWiki
4. Joomla
5. Google Reader
My students just love Google Reader – go figure.
There are lots of choices out there and you are right – you can’t do it all. I’m afraid my top five will show a little lack of computer sophistication, but really these are the things I go back to over and over again because they meet my needs.
1. Yahoo Groups: I’ve been in groups that were not too beneficial, but when you get in a good one it is well worth the time.
2. Printshop: Yes, it’s an old program, but when I need to do a quick little project, it is my first choice. This program just is in sync with my brain!
3. Photoshop Elements: Definitely not an intuitive program in my opinion and it isn’t my first choice for print projects. However if I need to make a photo slide show or edit RAW photos, it is quick, efficient, and gives great results.
4. Creative Memories Storybook Creator Plus: Yes, it is designed for scrapbooking, but I am now using this extensively for school. My latest use for the program is for posting class information with photos for parents on our gradebook program.
5. Powerpoint: I use this all the time – but not with the boring templates that put teenagers to sleep!
How many times have I tried a tool and dropped it as quickly as I adopted it? The school filter has helped me calm down a bit, and so the tools I use the most are the ones that are not blocked.
1. Google Reader. So many wonderful posts to read and learn from. I also use it to manage the student blogs that I help monitor.
2. Google Notebook. Since delicious is now blocked, I have found Notebook to be a great way to organize those jewels that I have found or want to revisit.
3. Audacity. We use iPods a lot in our classrooms for administering tests to students who need reading assistance. Audacity makes it real easy to record tests and chop the files into the pieces that we need.
4. Garageband. I use this tool to create my podcasts. Audacity is great for creating audio tests, but Garageband is the tool for me when it comes to making rich multimedia.
5. Edublogs. I have brought teachers and students aboard the blogosphere with this tool. Real simple to get students set up and running.
[...] to use can be a daunting task, but in order to be effective, I have to limit myself in some way. Jen posted her thoughts that prompted me to decide what tools am I going to use and in which I will become [...]
(though the order means little)
I would have to say that my top for LEARNING are:
1. delicious. there was web life b4 this?
2. ning. i couldn’t run class, nor PD the same way again: http://virtualsouthside.ning.com & http://stjoeh2o.ning.com as examples.
3. twitter. sometimes annoying, often interesting, sometimes even inspiring for brief moments.
4. flickr. i’m visual. i’ve tried others. i am switching to flickr. i am maybe 5% there.
5. iTunes. audiobooks, podcasts, etc.
6. slideshare. scan it… it really does contain things to inspire, as opposed to a place to simply stash meaningless slides.
7. scribd. I have really just began to utilize this one, but it is very cool.
8. photoshop. Ok- if you include “creating” as the top of of learning taxonomy, then I have to include this one. I have used it since 1994 and couldn’t do without it.
9. zotero. This one is new to me as well as far as how much I know about it… but wow. This is powerful for research!
10. keynote. give up on powerpoint once & for all. do it. (oh, sorry… if you have a Mac, that is) OR… try “sliderocket.” it looks as slick as anything i have seen as a webapp.
thank you, drive through………..
I wonder how many new Web 2.0 tools appear each day on the ‘net – on average, of course?
Anyway, my top tools:
1. Del.icio.us
2. Google Reader
3. Google Calendar
4. Blackboard (not by choice – still in grad school)
5. Flickr
There are others that I love, but don’t use them as often as those above. When I have the time, I love Twitter and YouTube.
This is a fun post…made me think about what I use almost daily.
Delicious (How did I manage without this awesome tool?)
Google (mail, calendar, reader, maps, talk)
Plurk (I LOVE the conversations here!)
Dreamweaver (I’ve tried other web editors – always come back to DW)
Fireworks (and this interfaces so well with DreamWeaver!)