Here it is: The Top 100 Tools for Learning 2013 — from c4lpt.co.uk by Jane Hart
Excerpt:
The Top 100 Tools for Learning 2013 list (released today, 30 September 2013) was compiled from the votes of over 500 learning professionals (from education and workplace learning) from 48 countries. Here are some of the highlights from this year’s list. For a fuller analyis, visit Analysis 2013
- Twitter retains its no 1 position for the 5th year running
- Google Drive/Docs moves up to #2.
- PowerPoint moves up to #5.
- Evernote moves into the top 10 at #6.
- Google +/Hangouts moves into the top 10 at #10.
- There are 10 new tools on the list topped by Feedly (an RSS reader/aggregator) at #19 and Coursera (a MOOC platform) at #38, and 3 returning tools to the list, including Storify at #58.
- The highest movers within the list are Skydrive (Windows file storage area) at #43 up 55 places since last year, and Keynote and iMovie up 40 and 32 places respectively (showing the increase in popularity of Apple software).
- A significant descent down the list for some tools including Google Sites (down 60 places) and Wikispaces (down 50 places).
- Tools moving off the list include Google Reader (now retired by Google), Bing and Scribd.
- Although the list is still dominated by free online social tools, a number of e-learning authoring tools have had a good showing this year.
- As for trends over the last 5 years, it is interesting to note that Firefox (#1 in 2007) is now at #97 on the list, and Delicious (#1 in 2008) is now at #60. What will topple Twitter from the top of the list?
I wouldn’t have found this list if it wasn’t for your website. I frequently crawl it for ideas and inspiration and to stay on top of trends- like using educational games instead of boring your students with lists of facts upon facts. Being an educator, this is very important I feel. I was a bit worried though, most of those sites are all social networking sites. Do they help with true learning? There’s so much of bullying on sites like Twitter – is there a guide to how to make sure your child has a good online learning experience. That being said, sites like coursera and apps like evernote are so help to an older learner. Thanks for this list!
Thanks Maya for taking the time to comment on Jane Hart’s excellent list of tools. She does a super job with that each year.
It seems to me that with the vast amounts of information coming at us each day, getting someone’s attention is becoming more difficult to do. Educational games are a good way to get someone’s attention and keep their attention/focus. If we can get through that gate (i.e. getting someone’s attention), we have a chance at getting some of that information into the students’ long term memories (and creating the “hooks” on which they will be able to attach/hang more things on in the future).
I think the bottom line is that, in the future, it will take a team of specialists to create and deliver the content. Educational games are a good example of this — few, if any of us, can create such games by ourselves. That goes for interactive, engaging, well-done multimedia-based activities and materials as well. Now throw in learning analytics and tracking and it quickly requires a team of people (skillsets) to achieve.
Have you looked at Quib.ly for the concerns regarding cyberbullying, overall digital citizenship, etc? (http://quib.ly/what-is-quibly) They have a community of folks looking at such topics.
Thanks again Maya — keep up the good work out there!
Daniel
Thank you so much for this, Daniel. I will look into Quib.ly. It sounds like a really good resource and I’m sure they will be helpful.
You’re absolutely right about attention spans being what they are today. I found one teacher using the tune of a popular song but adding in key elements of her lesson and it was funny to watch the students sing it at each other during recess. I suppose teachers have to get innovative with these things, create hooks like you said. Do you think that educators and specialists will get together in the future and design games and other technology? I overheard a student talking about video games based on popular movies. I think it was School of Dragons based on How to Train your Dragon. Is that the way forward for education?
Thanks Maya!
Q: Do you think that educators and specialists will get together in the future and design games and other technology?
A: I think that’s a definite piece of the future. I’m also hopeful that students themselves will be creating such games, and in the process, really learn the material. The whole “maker movement” comes into play here, and offers us some engaging possibilities. Transmedia storytelling should also be engaging to many students — as they can self-select which area(s) they want to contribute to/hone their skills in:
Digital audio
Digital video
Graphic design
Mobile learning design
UX and UI design
Programming
Project Management
Other…
Thanks,
Daniel
Just ran across this one:
http://www.edutopia.org/edutopianews.html
I’d never really thought of the idea of students being able to create their own games. That is brilliant! It really does sound like Transmedia story telling is the next big trend in education. Again, thank you so much for your replies and those links. They were eye openers! Cheers!