My Top Tools 2014

Jane Hart compiles a list every year of the Top 10 Tools for learning. Voting closes on 21 September.

Here are my top tools this year, with last year’s position shown in brackets. I have also annotated these tools as to what part of my PKM practice they connect with: SEEK > SENSE > SHARE

10 (4): Slideshare: A simple way to share presentations online but I use it (and LinkedIn, which owns Slideshare) in a separate browser to prevent it from tracking me. SHARE

9 (7): Flickr: Still a fairly easy way to share photos online but getting more complicated to use and share. I like the feature that automatically creates images in multiple sizes. SHARE

8 (6): Google Plus: G+ is very good for deep conversations and the live Hangouts feature works well. It is a small select community for me at G+. SEEK & SHARE

7 (new): Apple Preview: is the productivity tool I use the most, so I can focus on learning, not fighting with applications. It lets me annotate pictures, resize images, add signatures, and most importantly ensures I do not have to have Adobe Acrobat to open PDF’s. It is a huge time-saver. SENSE

6 (new): MorgueFile: is a great source for copyright free photos to use in presentations. SEEK

5 (5): Keynote: Apple’s presentation application has enabled me to improve my slide presentations, through its simplicity and lack of clip art. SENSE

4 (8): Feedly: is my feed reader to keep track of blogs and news sites via RSS. SEEK

3 (3): Diigo: Social bookmarks are a quick way for me to save a web page and find it easily (Diigo allows me to auto-backup to Delicious). SEEK

2 (2): Twitter: Next to my blog, Twitter is my best learning tool and allows me to stay connected to a diverse network. SEEK & SHARE

1 (1): WordPress: powers my blog, which is the core of my PKM. It’s easy to use, has a huge community, and there are many plug-ins and additions available. SENSE & SHARE