August 2, 2007
Top 10 E-Learning Tools
Some things work really well for e-learning; other things, not so good. How to find out what’s truly valuable?
Jane Hart, head of the Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies, in Somerset, England, wanted to know. So in July she asked 64 e-learning experts to list their top 10 tools.
The most frequently cited item in her survey was the Firefox Web browser. Next was del.icio.us, the social bookmarking tool. That was followed by Web-based e-mail, specifically Gmail from Google.
What’s interesting is that none of those programs are education-specific. Skype instant messaging, Google search, and Eblogger were also very popular. What they all seem to have in common is that they are tools for sharing information.
So is information sharing really the same thing as e-learning? —Josh Fischman
Posted on Thursday August 2, 2007 | Permalink |Comments
Commenting is closed for this article.
Previous: Masters of Their Domain
Next: Is a Well-Known Media Scholar Too Close to Rupert Murdoch?
Thanks for the provocative question “is information sharing really the same thing as e-learning?”. Seems to me that learning, prior to the e-word, was all about information sharing, knowledge inquiry and knowledge construction. Then along came Learning Management Systems and e-learning. Educational institutions then invested serious dollars in infrastructure and software licenses and support services , etc, to make it clumsy for the learner to engage in information sharing, knowledge inquiry and knowledge construction. Next came a bunch of lightweight web 2.0 tools and it was absolutely easy and natural to engage in information sharing, knowledge inquiry and knowledge construction. And it actually requires “being there”, unlike the stuff I see in LMS e-learning which has oodles of text but limited social engagement of the participants. But because educational institutions have made significant investment in proprietary software many will defend a position that information sharing is not e-learning.
— Vivian Forssman Aug 3, 01:42 AM #
Information sharing is quite clearly part of e-learning. I think what the Top 100 Tools. list (and the total collection of Top 10 Tools) shows is that e-learning is MUCH MUCH MORE than online courses and that there is a huge range of tools that can be used within a learning context – whether it be for personal learning or for creating learning experiences and events for others. E-Learning is a very wide concept (just like learning itself) and includes education, training, information sharing, communication and collaboration. Jane Hart, Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies, www.c4lpt.co.uk
— Jane Hart Aug 3, 06:29 AM #
I disagree with Vivian that “being there” is required, depending on how one defines presence. Research has shown no significant difference.
As to that softball question, no, learning is not the same thing as sharing information. But learning generally does require communication.
So-called LMS’s are just collections of tools for presenting content, interacting, and enrollment management. And they are generally behind the curve on Web2.0, so it’s not really a surprise that these newer communication tools are on the top ten list.
— Joe Clark Aug 3, 10:40 AM #
I’m glad to be getting thoughtful responses. Clearly you people see serious deficiencies in LMS. But here’s a tougher question about information-sharing tools: How do Firefox, Eblogger, social bookmarking, etc, actually HELP in e-learning? Anybody have some examples of how this helps students?
— Josh Fischman Aug 3, 10:54 AM #
First, a response to Joe – I agree that learning is much more than sharing information and that is why I added other contexts, such as knowledge construction. Interesting how these tools support knowledge construction – I could offer up several examples, but just check out mash-ups that students are creating to know they are constructing some interesting new ways of viewing the world and maybe even contributing to knowledge creation.
Eblogger – or any blogging tool – easy way to encourage reflective practice and e-portfolios, either as individuals or for group reflecion. Social bookmarking? It is very cool to be working on a research project and find like-minded researchers to see where their bookmarking has taken them, helping to build personal networks of inquiry.
— Vivian Forssman Aug 3, 12:39 PM #
The top 10 tools apparently have wider contextual adaptability.
— Dr. Okhamafe Aug 3, 12:42 PM #
Interesting that I don’t see the course management systems Blackboard or WebCT on the list.
— Sara Jameson Aug 3, 02:53 PM #
Excellent to engage in such a current discussion!
This dialogue represents a good opportunity for educational institutions, software companies and instructors around the world, to take some distance from previously designed LMS or didactic software and start thinking about the potential of any electronic mean/source for teaching and learning.
The top 100 list seems to say that e-learning is “socializing knowledge”, sharing. That is why Wikipedia has become such an important source of knowledge, challenging the principles of the Encyclopedia Britannica, don’t you think?
The challenge here is, I believe, how do we change our traditional ways of understanding knowledge and information, as separate units.. How do we innovate this concepts without loosing academic credibility.
I think that what Vivian means with “being there” implies interaction, virtual or physical presence, but dialogue above all.
— Martha Burkle Aug 3, 05:54 PM #
Sorry, but to me this list is a mixed bag of personal productivity tools and potential teaching tools. When you click on the comments of the top dozen or so, almost no one is using these tools for teaching. They are using them to facilitate and organize the work and personal lives. Where are the teachers?
— Alan A Lew Aug 3, 11:09 PM #
i really want to know about e-leaning
— adams mohammed Aug 4, 08:25 AM #
What’s sad is there are no tools for teaching in that list aside from an expensive tool for making tests and some course hosting tools. Also there are no programming and development tools, except for flash and dreamweaver.
I take it e-learning folks don’t know how to program, only create text and video. Which means no games, no simulations, no interactive learning experiences.
You could have just as easily asked kids or teenagers or adults what tools do you use in your leisure time, and the list would be mostly the same, except there would be more games. No one mentioned Second Life or Croquet on this list either.
— Doug Aug 4, 09:58 AM #
Isn’t (and hasn’t) learning always been engagement of the learner with the material? Even in times prior to technology, didn’t learning occur with engagement? I am not talking about rote memorization, but learning. How we engage learners (in recent technological times) is changing, with ever improving tools to reach the digital native student, but it remains, we must engage the learner.
I see three factors here: the learner, the act of engagement, and tools to engage or technology. I think we now know more about the learner and engagement and it is becoming increasingly important to reach the digital native student in their world, not the world we knew prior to technology.
So, yes this list of top 10 tools is just that. A list of the best current technology offers to support engagement (particularly of the digital native student). This list is a living list and will change with technology and research. The challenge is for the institution to navigate the expensive and ever changing waters of new technology to find a way that works for learners and faculty, always with a goal of engaged learning.
My question for institutions is what does the “e” represent in e-learning? Is it electronic (what I think it has been translated to mean) or enhanced (what it perhaps should mean)...with big dollars on the line, perhaps it is time to focus on the learner needs and experience to ensure (another e word) that the learner is engaged (oops another one) with the material and actually learning with the support of the tools, not inhibited by a plethera of inadequate technology.
— Vonda Aug 7, 09:13 AM #
I’m interested in how advances in blogging software have enhanced or advanced the classroom curriculum. Mostly curious if anyone has seen the new version of Movable Type that was just released. It’s been touted as a content manager / website design tool – and oh, by the way, it also does blogs. Is this radically different from other blogging software?
— cheekymonkey Aug 9, 01:16 AM #
So is information sharing really the same thing as e-learning? Not really. Information sharing does not have the ability to track the progress of a learner’s assimilation of knowledge. It also does not provide a means of assessing if learning actually occurred.
At the firm where I work, RedVector.com, (a provider of online education) a “course” consists of the following elements: 1) a lesson, 2) an assessment (test knowledge, 3) a learner survey (to enable the learner to provide feedback on the content and their experience.
Further, in the laeger context of elearning, there may be a Learning Management System (LMS) which serves the online courses and provides administration tools and reports to facilitate the learning process.
So is information sharing really the same thing as e-learning? No – just a small part of it
— Jim Kissane Aug 18, 08:31 AM #
Information sharing is only a particle of e-learning. If you look at Blooms Taxonomy and relate it to this situation, I’d say information sharing is the very basic/base of the learning levels or process. It’s a didactic and passive form of learning where the theory is to ‘absorb’. I think where some of these tools do well is the application of engagement that encourages active learning. I was shocked to see Mozilla Firefox because if that’s the case – then I’d cite my computer as the top tool in e-learning. However, I do not dismiss the findings because it is a valid point esp. if the ones who took the survey have little knowledge or distinction between technology and actual elearning specific tools.
— Michael Abulencia Aug 30, 12:24 AM #