Swansea's Top 10 Tools....

Following on from a previous post a group of people were asked to nominate their Top 10 learning tools to see if we could find Swansea's Top 10 Tools. The results are in as you can see below. Most people found it quite difficult to rank the tools so you will also find a list of all the tools mentioned.

To avoid any confusion, it was taken as a given that the Virtual Learning Environment is a useful tool and is not included in the list.

Rank	Tool	Votes	Type of Tool
1	Google Search	49	Search engine
2	Delicious	49	Social bookmarking
3	Powerpoint	38	Presentations
4	Blogger	30	Blogging
5	Clicker Software	26	Audience response system
6	Firefox	25	Web browser
7	Blogs	23	Blogging
8	Course Genie	21	E-learning activity creator
9	iGoogle	19	Personalised homepage
10	Netvibes	18	Personalised homepage

Honourable mention should also be given to Audacity, which came just outside the Top 10 with 17 votes.

Three of the tools are paid for and provided by the University - Powerpoint, Course Genie and Clickers software. The rest are 'free' tools.

If we add some of the 684 votes together, various Google tools got 116 votes, Blogging tools 66 votes and Wiki tools 52 votes.

Thanks to all those who took the time to vote

Full List of Tools

Asus EEE PC

Audacity

Beer

Blogger

Blogs

Cakes

Camtasia

Chat

Clicker Software

Conversation

Course Genie

Delicious

Discussion Forum

Dokuwiki

Dreamweaver

Elgg

Endnote

Facebook

Feedburner

Field Courses

Firefox

Flickr

Freemind

Google Alerts

Google Calendar

Google Custom Search

Google Docs

Google Reader

Google Scholar

Google Search

Google Video

Grazr

HEA E-Learning Materials

iGoogle

Image manipulation Software

iMovie

Interactibe Whiteboard Software

JSTOR

Lectures

Levleator

Library

Lynda.com

Movie maker

Netvibes

Nexus UK

PB Wiki

Picens

Powerpoint

Practicals

Projects

Quandry

Simulations

Snagit

Survey Monkey

Tiddlywiki

Video Creation Software

Video Jug

VOIP/Skype

Web

Wikipedia

Wikis

Wikispaces

Windows Live

Wireless Keyboard & Mouse

Word

Wordpress

WorldCat

You Tube

Social Media in Plain English

A new video from the Commoncraft Show this time on the subject of Social Media

Swanevent: Lunch & Learn - Web 2.0 at the Chalkface

This session, by Paul Latreille, will provide an account of using Web 2.0 technologies such as social networking, blogs and wikis in a first year ICT and Study Skills module. Used primarily to support LEAP/PDP and employability, such technologies offer the potential to transform student learning more widely. The session will focus on the academic perspective, sharing insights and tips from one user's experience for others considering these technologies.

When: Wednesday 11th June 2008
Where: Staff Development
What Time: 1-2pm

Contact Carol David in Staff Development to register c.a.david@swansea.ac.uk

E-Learning & Beer

After the success of the last E-Learning and Beer ( like e-learning and cakes but with beer instead of cakes) it's been decided to do it again. This time it will be at a different venue - The Wig in St Helen's Road - where there will be a bit more room than last time. They do food in the evening as well if all the talk of e-learning makes you feel hungry.

When: Thursday 12th June
What time: From 6:00 pm
Where: The Wig, St Helen's Road Swansea

Swansea's Top 10 Tools for Learning?

Following on from the recent post about The Top 100 Tools for Learning, it has been suggested that we might try and find the Top Tools for learning as used by Swansea University staff.

So, it would be really useful if you could list your Top 10 in order and then email them to Chris Hall (To make things easier, will take it as a given that the VLE would be in everyone’s list so you don't need to include it :-) ) We’ll then score them - 10 points for your top choice, 9 for your second and so on – and find out what the Top 10 are. If you can’t think of Top 10, list a 5 or a 3 or 6. Please feel free to pass this on to anyone else you think may want to contribute.

We’ll post the results here on the Learning Lab.

Do you want to be friends?

Google has announced Google Friend Connect a way of incorporating aspects of social networking into any site.

The blurb says that Google Friend Connect allows you to 'add social features to your website....get more people engaging more deeply'.

So, what do you think? Should we add it to the Learning Lab? If you could have a look at the video and look at the Google site, then leave a comment here on whether you think it would be a good thin to add to the Learning Lab. http://www.google.com/friendconnect/home/moreinfo

Do hedgehogs steal ice cream?

The title is one of the questions used in a recent online 'Critical Thinking & Information Literacy' module. In the next Lunch and Learn session Chris Hall will look at this use the web to teach Critical Thinking. And, as usual, there will also be a free lunch.

What day? Tuesday 13th May

What time? 1-2pm

Where? Staff Development

Contact Carol David in Staff Development to book a place c.a.david@swansea.ac.uk Tel. 5762

Top 100 Tools for Learning

The Centre for Learning and Performance Technolgies have produced their latest list of the Top 100 Tools for learning - http://c4lpt.co.uk/recommended/top100.html
Interestingly, delcious is now the top tool. Are we all becoming librarians? Also, Powepoint is the only paid for tool in the Top 10. Big movers include - Ning, PBWiki, Second Life and Slideshare, while Yahoo Groups and Bubble.us are among the fallers.