Somehow I missed colleague Jane Hart’s annual survey of top 10 tools for learning ’til just today, yet it’s the last day! I’ve participated in the past, and find it a valuable chance for reflection on my own, as well as seeing the results come out. So here’s my (belated) list of top 10 tools for learning 2023.
I’m using Harold Jarche’s Personal Knowledge Mastery framework for learning here. His categories of seek (search and feed), sense (interpret) and share (closely or broadly) seems like an interesting and relevant way to organize my tools.
Seek
I subscribe to blog posts via email, and I use Feedblitz because I use it as a way for people to sign up for Learnlets. I finally started paying so they didn’t show gross ads (you can now signup safely; they lie when they say the have ‘brand-safe’ ads), and fortunately my mail removes images (for safety, unless I ask), so I don’t see them.
I’m also continuing to explore Mastodon (@quinnovator@sfba.social). It has its problems (e.g. hard to find others, smaller overall population), but I do find the conversations to be richer.
I’m similarly experimenting with Discord. It’s a place where I can generally communicate with colleagues.
I’m using Slack as a way to stay in touch, and I regularly learn from it, too. Like the previous two, it’s both seek and share, of course.
Of course, web surfing is still a regular activity. I’ve been using DuckDuckGo as a search engine instead of more famous ones, as I like the privacy policies better.
Sense
I still use Graffle as a diagramming tool (Mac only). Though I’m intrigued to try Apple’s FreeForm, in recent cases I’ve been editing old diagrams to update, and it’s hard to switch.
Apple’s Keynote is also still my ‘goto’ presentation maker, e.g. for my LDA activities. I have to occasionally use or output to Powerpoint, but for me, it’s a more elegant tool.
I also continue to use Microsoft’s Word as a writing tool. I’ve messed with Apple’s Pages, but…it doesn’t transfer over, and some colleagues need Word. Plus, that outlining is still critical.
Share
My blog (e.g. what you’re reading ;) is still my best sharing tool, so WordPress remains a top learning tool.
LinkedIn has risen to replace Twitter (which I now minimize my use of, owing to the regressive policies that continue to emerge). It’s where I not only auto-post these screeds, but respond to others.
As a closing note, I know a lot of people are using generative AI tools as thinking partners. I’ve avoided that for several reasons. For one, it’s clear that they’ve used others’ work to build them, yet there’s no benefit to the folks whose work has been purloined. There are also mistakes. Probably wrongly, but I still trust my brain first. So there’re my top 10 tools for learning 2023
Perusing Harold Jarche’s list, I forgot to mention video chats (which can be in Zoom, Teams, or Google Meet (even had one in Slack). Not sure which tool I’d cite, though.
So glad that you called out the generative AI situation for what it is. Like you, I refuse to use these tools for creation or ideas and have these turned off. I’m now exploring creative writing and I’m amazed how many people are using AI to generate book ideas or just to write their text. It’s disconcerting. They’ve outsourced their thinking and writing to the bots meaning that those who do use their own brain power will, over time, be in the minority.
Then, over time, you’d start to wonder what’s the point of doing anything if the sense of thinking, planning, reflecting, idea generating is out of our hands?
That’s very much it. I get having a thinking partner, but I worry about both people outsourcing too much (risking inaccuracy and losing their own voice), and about who’s work is being leveraged without recompense. I like the meme that says something like “AI getting to do the painting, poetry, and music while humans work for minimum wage isn’t the future vision I signed up for”.