E-learning Tools

E-learning is a concept of learning electronically using the internet. This type of learning is particularly successful for higher studies or corporations.

There are many tools used in the e-learning procedure. They are

Web Blog
A blog short for web log is a user-generated website where entries are made in journal style and displayed in a reverse chronological order. The term "blog" is a mingling of the words web and log.
Blogs provide comments or news on a particular subject, some function as more personal online diaries. The modern blog evolved from the online diary, where people would keep a running account of their personal lives. Most such writers called themselves diarists, journalists.
Blogs can be hosted by dedicated blog hosting services, or they can be run using blog software, such as WordPress, Movable Type, blogger or LiveJournal, or on regular web hosting services, such as DreamHost.

Social bookmarking
Social bookmarking is a web-based service to share Internet bookmarks. The Social bookmarking sites are a popular way to store, classify, share and search links through the practice of folksonomies techniques on the Internet.
In a social bookmarking system, users store lists of Internet resources that they find useful. These lists are accessible to the public or a specific network, and other people with similar interests can view the links by category, tags, or even randomly. Some allow for privacy on a per-bookmark basis.

Wiki
A wiki is a website that allows visitors to add, remove, edit and change content, without the need for registration. It also allows for linking among any number of pages. This ease of interaction and operation makes a wiki an effective tool for mass collaborative authoring.
A wiki enables documents to be written very collaboratively, in a simple markup language using a web browser. A single page in a wiki is referred to as a “wiki page”, whiles the entire body of pages, which are usually highly interconnected via hyperlinks, and is "the wiki". A wiki is a uncomplicated, easy-to-use user-maintained database for creating, browsing and searching information. In a wiki pages can be created and updated easily.
RSS
RSS is a web feed formats used to publish frequently updated digital content, such as blogs, news feeds or podcasts, vodcasts etc.
Users of RSS content use software programs called "feed readers" or "feed aggregators". The user subscribes to a feed by entering a link to the feed into the reader program. The reader can then check the user's subscribed feeds to see if any of those feeds have new content since the last time it checked and if so, retrieve that content and present it to the user.

Podcasting
Podcasting is a fusion of two words: iPod, Apple’s popular digital music player, and broadcasting.

Podcasts are basically digital audio programs that can be subscribed to and downloaded by listeners by RSS (Really Simple Syndication). It can be accessed on an array of digital audio devices, like Mp3 players, desktop computer, laptops, mobiles etc. They can be easily produced with any computer having a soundcard; microphone, recording software and an Internet connection. Though podcasters' web sites may also offer direct download or streaming of their content, a podcast is distinguished from other digital media formats by its ability to be downloaded automatically.

Instant Messaging
An instant messaging application allows one to communicate with another person over a network in relative privacy. There are many options like Gtalk, Skype, Meetro, ICQ, Yahoo! Messenger, MSN Messenger and AOL for instant messaging. You can add associates to a contact list or buddy list, by entering their email address or messenger ID.

Text chat
Internet Relay Chat (IRC) and other online chat technologies allow users to join chat rooms and communicate with many people at once, publicly. Users may join a pre-existing chat room or create a chat room about any topic. Whether you are in another person's chat room, or one you've created yourself, you are generally free to invite others online to join you. This facilitates both one-to-one communication and many-to-many interaction.
Internet forums
Originally modeled after the real-world paradigm of electronic bulletin boards of the world before Internet was born, internet forums allow users to post a "topic" for others to review. Other users can view the topic and post their own comments in a linear fashion, one after the other. Most forums are public, allowing anybody to sign up at any time. A few are private, gated communities where new members must pay a small fee to join for example the Something Awful Forums.

In conclusion
These e-learning tools are a practical, inexpensive and uncomplicated method for learning online. They are available to one and all and are great for propagating E-Learning.