For three years running, Jane Hart has facilitated an annual survey for the Top 100 Tools for Learning. Votes are solicited from professionals in the Learning industry. After 107 votes so far, the tally shows (drum roll...) Twitter as having taken the number one spot. That's a bump up from eleventh place last year, and forty-third in 2007.
I'm still processing the tally.
Don't be dis-in' Twitter, man.
Now, I love Twitter. Those of you who follow my antics know that I'm an avid Tweep... can't shut me up sometimes.
I go to the tweetups (live local meetings of folks who meet on twitter), I cross-post tweets to other social networks, I'd even encourage my grandmother to tweet, if she were still alive. You can say I drink the kool-aid. But, even my initial reaction was Twitter?! As a tool for creating learning programs?!
I mean, yes. I can see the applications Twitter has in supporting the learning creation process. But, even I was a little surprised to see it trending to #1. That places it above such creation tools as course authoring, storyboarding, mindmapping, learning management systems. I would've thought even web conferencing systems would have more ability to create learning.
More to the story.
But, don't be put off. On the "more info" page, it suggests the feedback is allowed to be more open-ended. About halfway down the page, the criteria clearly asks that each respondent provide the names of her/his 10 favorite tools for creating learning for others, for your own professional practice or personal productivity.
As such, it's broader in its interpretation and gives the opportunity to cast the net wide. In doing so, Jane compiles the subjective feedback she receives into categories. The result of which is produced in another presentation (below), the top 25 categories of learning tools.
I find the compilation below even more compelling for learning professionals. I say that because it suggests to us that, no matter what your favorite tools are, there are certain tool sets that you should have represented in your arsenal.
It's a great list and worth a look-see.
25 Tools: A Toolbox for Learning Professionals 2009
