The 2015 Chicago eLearning & Technology Showcase, held last month at Northwestern University’s Chicago campus, brought together like-minded learning professionals for a day of learning on new tools, as well as methods and strategies to utilize in the ever-expanding realm of eLearning. There were many takeaways throughout the day – including Trish Uhl’s keynote speech on the career progression of professions in the learning & development industry. However, I would like to focus on one session in particular that I felt was extremely useful to not only seasoned eLearning professionals, but also to those just starting their career in eLearning.
In one of the Learning Spark sessions – where each presenter had exactly five minutes – Toni Ostrowski talked about a handful of free tools for educators. Toni features everything she mentioned, and a lot more, on her website, Free (and almost free) Tools for Educators… which she created for free. I highlight this session for two reasons. First, technology changes very quickly. It seems like the newest version of a tool comes out only a few days after the most current one. The more exposure you have to the tools available, the better you will be able to determine which ones work best for what you are trying to accomplish, and which ones you prefer to use. Second, new tools are expensive. It can be hard to tell what learning tools and technology will be here in the future. However, by understanding what’s out there, and utilizing what you can leverage that’s free, you can potentially save money over time. This is particularly important for independent learning consultants, who own their software and tools, as organizations may require eLearning design professionals to bring in this knowledge and their independent tools.
Here are a few tools I would like to highlight which, again, you can find on Toni’s site:
Clip2Net – A screenshot tool that allows you to edit the content that you captured. A neat way to customize.
Vocaroo – A voice recording tool that is straightforward and easy to use.
Weebly – A website creation tool with lots of features. It’s clean looking and easy to use.
TED Talks – Who doesn’t like a TED Talk? There are so many different subjects to choose from and so much valuable content. A great way to mix it up a bit in an eLearning module.
This is a small list of what is coming down the pike but stay tuned as the learning design field is changing daily!