I was searching through this week’s entries at OLDaily and found this link to tools.

http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2007/11/bestoftheweb-my-most-useful-tools.html

If you have not read through the Cool Cat Teacher blog, you should take the time to do so.  This blog keeps up with current issues and has great discussion and information.

If I were recommending a good beginner’s toolbox for someone, these are the items I would recommend and why.  First, high speed Internet access.  I have become very spoiled with fast access.  Since my husband is a web page designer, we have had broadband since 1998.  It was the determining factor in buying our current house.  Even though we are in a small community (Jeffersonville, outside Mt. Sterling), our community had just gotten new cable and, even after three years, we are still the only ones on the street who use it. 

My second recommendation is a good, reliable email account like Gmail.  I have had problems with my hotmail account, and since I have had it so long, I get so much spam even with my filters set high.  Gmail does a much better job of distinguishing the junk mail and putting it where it belongs. 

My third recommendation is a good quality browser.  I have tried many of them, and my browser of choice is Firefox.  I love the tabs.  IE7 is my second favorite.  For a while, I was a big Opera fan, but when Firefox went above 2.+ version, it surpassed Opera.

Since enrolling in this class, my two new recommendations are the gator feed and the blogs.  Since I have two online classes that use the feed, I found the Google Reader’s link management very useful.   Blogs are good for communication of ideas, and I like getting feedback from classmates on postings I have done.

Having a good organizational structure for bookmarks is also important.  I have been using folders to save particular links in My Favorites, and I have found them quickly when I wanted to recommend a link or two to a math teacher in our group.  I have been a real advocate of online professional development in math, and I attend every professional meeting on math that I can.

The key with all of the tools mentioned above is communication.  By having the right tools, it makes being a learner more fulfilling.  I did not make a comprehensive list, just the ones that I see as more beneficial.