PureText Home Page
Free tool to strip formatting when copying and pasting text, without having to go through Notepad first
Directory of E-Learning Tools: Social networks
Lots of choices for social networking & collaboration tools. Those looking for replacements for Ning are probably most interested in the private/closed social networks that are free and hosted.
Board800 : Flex / Flash / Red5 based Interactive Whiteboard
Collaborative whiteboard/drawing tool. Basic tools, but easy to share with others and draw in real time. Images can be saved.
Seven sexiest alternatives to Ning
Alternatives for free online groups now that Ning is shooting themselves in the foot with a paid model
Phil Bradley's weblog: Alternatives to Ning
Tools to create online communities, all probably benefiting from Ning's decision to move to exclusively paid sites
Moodle Tool Guide for Teachers - Cat's Pyjamas
Matrix showing how different types of activities can be completed with different tools in Moodle. The focus is on the activity and end result, not on the tool--the guide shows what tools fit the outcome you're looking for.
Social Networks in Action - Learning Networks @ UOW
Tool to analyze forum conversations in an LMS, create network diagrams, and identify behavior patterns.
SNAPP uses information on who posted and replied to whom, and what major discussions were about, and how expansive they were, to analyse the interactions of a forum and display it in a Social Network Diagram.
Kapp Notes: 11 Free Game Creation Software Programs (At least for 30 Days)
Free tools (or at least tools with free demos) for developing games
3 Web-Based Tools that Generate Awesome Tag Clouds
Better than your average tag cloud--interactive, colorful, shaped like clouds, etc.
eFront: Top 10 Open Source e-Learning Projects to Watch for 2011
Great collection of open source e-learning projects and tools, including multimedia development, screen recording, Android app development, an LMS, and more. (Technically, some of these are Free, not Open Source, but still a valuable list.)
Tools for Freelance Instructional Designers « Design Doc
Collected tools from a LinkedIn eLearning Guild discussion on must-have tools for freelancing
E.gg Timer - simple online countdown timer
Type a time and it starts a timer in your browser window. Useful for showing break times in online synchronous training. You can bookmark a specific URL for a time if you regularly use the same length of time.
World Time Buddy
Easy tool for scheduling meetings across time zones. Set it up with the locations you commonly use and bookmark your specific URL.
Misadventures in Learning: What's a Twitter Chat?
Intro to Twitter chats like #lrnchat, including how it works and tools to make participation easier
FreelanceSwitch Hourly Rate Calculator
Calculate business expenses, personal expenses, how much of your time you are actually able to bill. Nice to play around with the variables and see how that affects the hourly rate.
Head in the Clouds? Ten Free Web 2.0 Tools to Support Faculty Research - Faculty Focus | Faculty Focus
Tools for creating bibliographies, organizing research, and planning
5 Free Desktop Image Editors for E-Learning » The Rapid eLearning Blog
Free options for image editing. I've used Picasa, Paint.net, and GIMP before, but PhotoScape and PixBuilder Studio are new to me.
Feature Comparison - ActivePresenter
ActivePresenter is a screencast/simulation tool with some similar features to Captivate. The free version can do screencasts and export them to WMV, but not simulations in Flash. You can add captions and zoom and pan even with the free version.
Our Thoughts on Articulate Storyline | E-Learning Uncovered
Podcast comparing Articulate Storyline with Articulate Studio, Captivate, and Lectora in multiple categories, explaining the advantages and drawbacks of each.
Doodle: easy scheduling
Free tool, no registration required. Create an event and some suggested times and send the link out to participants. Let everyone choose which times they are available. With registration, you can connect it to your calendar. I do sometimes miss enterprise Outlook for the simplicity of seeing everyone's availability when scheduling meetings, but this would probably work for most of my needs now.
FreshBooks - Online Invoicing, Accounting & Billing Software
Someone mentioned this tool in a LinkedIn discussion about how to get paid as a freelancer. I don't spend enough time invoicing right now to justify this, but the tool looks promising if I ever get to a point where I am spending multiple hours doing paperwork.
PlagTracker - Plagiarism Checker
Highlights sentences, shows links to sources where content came from. I wish it showed the original and copied content side by side so it was easier to compare; you have to just go to the source and find it yourself.
Free Screen Sharing | Screenleap
Free screen sharing. Click to share and let Java run. Send a link to the other person or give them a 9-digit code. No sign up required
Trello
Free tool for organizing projects. This isn't a standard project management tool, but you could use it to assign and manage tasks in a team.
Chat Mapper
Tool for developing branching dialogue. It's designed for both video games and training. There are more features here than what I would need for most scenario-based training I develop, but for something complex this would be a great way to create and test a conversation. It also exports to a very clean screenplay for actors. The free version is only for personal use, but the Indie license is only $60 and would be worth it for a complex enough project. I can usually keep it all straight in my own head in Word, but I've had problems getting actors and developers to understand how the pieces fit together. The simulated dialog might be enough to help others see the flow.
Google Reader is dying, but we have five worthy alternatives | CNET Reviews
Google Reader has been one of my primary tools for personal learning for years. I'm disappointed that it's going to be shut down. Hopefully one of these alternatives will meet my needs.
The Old Reader
RSS reader inspired by Google Reader. No mobile app yet but they say they are working on it.
Going beyond Google Reader, RIP | Bryan Alexander
Alternatives to Google Reader
11 iGoogle Alternatives for Teachers
I've been using iGoogle as my home page. igHome looks like a good alternative with a good gadget selection, but there are several other choices here to check out.
Cometdocs
Online tool for converting PDF files to Word, Excel, PPT, etc. It does a good job of making text editable, but converts SmartArt as static graphics. It would work for small text edits in a presentation where you don't have the original PPT file, but if you had a lot of SmartArt to rebuild it wouldn't save much time. It might work better for Excel spreadsheets than the PPT I tested.