25 Tools every learning professional should have in their toolbox and all for free PLEASE NOTE THE 2009 VERSION IS NOW AVAILABLE ON SLIDESHARE

1. Jane Hart Social Media & Learning Consultant Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies www.C4LPT.co.uk every Learning Professional should have in their Toolbox - and all for free!

3. Firefox web browser with extensions This is clearly an essential tool; it is your "window on the web" and the basis of everything you do. But Firefox is more than a browser; the hundreds of extensions available provide an enormous range of extra functionality not found with other browsers . 1

4. Delicious social bookmarking tool Don't store your bookmarks in your browser any longer, but online, where you can tag (i.e. categorise) them and share them with others, e.g. project resources with colleagues, teaching/training resources with students. 2

5. Google Reader online RSS reader Keeping up to date with your subject can mean scanning many websites and blogs on a regular basis. But with an RSS reader you simply subscribe to the site’s news feed and the news is delivered automatically to you. Effortless! 3

6. gMail/Google Mail webmail No more worrying about an email client on your desktop and dealing with spam and viruses, gMail provides you with a more efficient emailing service with tons of free storage space . 4

7. Skype instant messenger and voice call tool In today's fast moving world, we all want instant answers. Skype provides an easy way of not only text messaging your online contacts but also free computer-to-computer voice calls - with low charges out to landlines. 5

8. Google Calendar online calendar Don't keep your calendar to yourself, share it and make scheduling events an easier process. 6

9. Google Docs online office suite Do you need to work on documents with your team, colleagues or others? Google Docs provides a suite of online tools to create and edit textual documents, spreadsheets and presentations. And if you don't want to give up using Microsoft Office completely, these can all be uploaded into Google Docs when you want to share them 7

10. iGoogle personal start page tool Aggregate all your resources, mail, RSS feeds, videos, in one place. 8

11. Slideshare presentation sharing tool If you create presentations in PowerPoint or Keynote, then you can host them, tag them and share them online with Slideshare. You can make them privately available if you don't want the whole world to see them, and you can even synchronise them with an audio file to create a narrated presentation. 9

12. Flickr image hosting and sharing tool An image is worth a thousand words! If you are looking for a place to host your personal or professional picture collection, to tag them and share them with friends, colleagues and others, then this is the place to do it. 10

13. VoiceThread collaborative slideshow tool Using PowerPoint presentations or flickr images you can create an audio slideshow and audio comments can also be left by others. 11

14. WordPress blogging tool Blogging can be both a personal or professional activity. Many people say that they have learnt more by blogging (and hence reflecting upon things) than by any other means. Wordpress makes creating a blog very easy, and there are many plugins available to embed resources like flickr images, Slideshare presentations, and so on into it. 12

15. Audacity audio/podcasting tool This downloadable tool makes recording and editing audio very simple, and with the extra encoder you can convert your audio files into MP3 podcasts. 13

16. YouTube video hosting and sharing tool Videos can now be easily created using webcams, camcorders and even mobile phones. You can then upload them into YouTube and share them with others. Simply point your users to the pages where they are to be found or else embed them in your blog or website. 14

17. Jing screen capture and screencasting tool This is an “always-ready” program that instantly captures and shares images and video. 15

18. PBwiki wiki tool Another collaborative tool; this one for setting up editable websites. Wikipedia is, of course, the most well known example of how to use a wiki and develop content collaboratively with your users. But a wiki tool can be used for many different collaborative purposes. 16

19. PollDaddy polling tool Want to get some quick feedback from your people? Set up a poll, embed the poll widget in your blog or website and then track responses on the PollDaddy site. 17

20. Nvu web authoring tool Although blogging tools are the quickest way to get a web presence, you may want to create a website that is not structured chronologically. Nvu is a versatile tool to let you do that. 18

21. Yugma web meeting tool For small meetings of up to 10 meetings, Yugma is free. You can whiteboard, annotate and share files. You can even use Skype to connect. 19

22. Ustream live broadcasting tool Probably “The Next Big Thing” - live interactive video broadcasting to a global audience. All it takes is a camera and an internet connection. 20

23. Ning private social networking tool You may already belong to a public social network like Facebook, but Ning lets you create and customise a private network for a group of like-minded people, large or small. 21

25. FreeMind mindmapping tool For organising your thoughts or just brainstorming. 22

26. eXe course authoring tool A tool to create SCORM-compliant training material that doesn't require you to be proficient in HTML or XML markup. It works within Moodle too, of course. 23

27. Moodle course management system Run it on your PC to try it out and see its potential! You might then consider using it to host a complete course or program or simply to provide the user authentication mechanism to access training materials. If you can't install it in-house then there are low-cost hosting solutions available 24

28. Twitter micro-blogging tool If you want to stay in touch with people no matter where you are or what you’re doing, then Twitter's for you! 25