I've been exploring and using all sorts of Web 2.0 tools and technologies for some time now and thought I would share the ones that make up my "Web 2.0 Toolkit". These are the Web 2.0 tools that I use pretty much everyday in both my personal life and as an adult educator. So, in no particular order, here they are:- Blogging - Well - I'm obviously using Blogger, but Wordpress is pretty cool too
- RSS - I'm sold on Netvibes - it's become my number one source of online information - I literally get hundreds of feeds from it daily
- Pictures - Flickr and Photobucket. I use Flickr for storing and showing off my photos and Photobucket for my stock photos that I use on line. I also use flickrCC to find stock photos online (remember to abide by the licensing terms of the owners - msot use one of the Creative Commons licenses)
- Wikis - I have several different wikis now at wikispaces but pbwiki is a really good tool as well. Wikis are a great educational tool, particularly if you get your learners to maintain them. A good way to answer the question "What do we do now that the course is over?".
- Collaboration - Google Groups and Google Notebook. Two great tools from Google, I plan on using them to replace textbooks in my courses.
- To-do List - Remember The Milk is an easy to use to-do list that keeps me on track
- Calendar tool - Google Calendar - just about runs my life now, would be lost without it - and I can share my calendar too so people know what's going on with me.
- Social Networking - Facebook - a great tool for staying in touch, I'm in the process of setting up an alumni group for my former students
- Video conversions - Vixy.net is great if you absolutely must have a local copy of that favourite online video. A great tool if you don't always have a high-speed Internet connection
- Staying current - Twitter is a great tool for letting people know where you are and what you are up to although I do not use it nearly as much as some. I actually use the custom status messages in GMail more
- Conferencing - Elluminate's vRoom - a great free tool from Elluminate gives you all of the capabilities of Elluminate except for recording and a limit of three sites. Not really a Web 2.0 tool (try Vyew if you want a Web-based conferencing tool).
(Photo from David Babylon)
6 comments:
So this is your personal learning environment?
In a nutshell, yes it is, or at least it is my online PLE.
I'd like to think that I have many PLEs, all customized to my learning needs at a particular moment, the learning that is occurring, the location, and the learning styles in use.
For me another way of looking at PLES might be to call them "situational learning" - separate spaces, opportunities, and environments that collectively contribute to my learning.
PLEs - now there is a whole other topic for discussion. Hmmm...
I'm a fan of Hipcal.com to manage my daily calendar and am now addicted to the news article stock market game trendio.com. I usually browse through these two directories to find new 2.0 sites: http://www.go2web20.net/
http://www.netjaxer.com
Thanks Josh, I'll have to check those out. Much appreciated. The knowledge pool deepens...
I highly recommend Yugma for real-time web get togethers. It's so easy and fast I use it almost every day for my various project meetings. I'm actually amazed that it's free.
http://www.yugma.com
Thanks Alex, I'll check it out. Another tool for the kit.
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