Wallyworld

Top 100 Tools for Learning is a pretty interesting list put out by C4LPT - the Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies. Here's the Top 10 on the list -

Firefox, the web browser, tops the list, with over 50% of contributors naming it as one of their favourite tools. It is clearly the tool that is empowering many people to manage their own learning, and is frequently cited as people's "window into the web". Its ease of use and the extra functionality of its add-ons make it useful in many different situations. Some of these add-ons even get their own ranking in the list: Web Developer and Firebug (for debugging websites), Zotero (for supporting research) and ScribeFire (for blog posting) Other browsers do appear on the list, but much lower down the rankings, ie Internet Explorer (at 31=) followed by Flock and Safari (at 72=)

del.icio.us is interesting at No 2 - with 40% of contributors mentioning this social bookmarking tool - again it is clearly an important tool for managing personal learning. It is well ahead of any other social bookmarking tools, with digg and Furl way down the list in joint 72nd position.

Skype, mentioned by nearly 35% of contributors, comes in at 3rd place and is again ahead of other instant messaging tools like Google Talk, Adium, MSN/ Windows Messenger, Meebo and Pidgin. Undoubtedly due to its VoIP features and its impressive list of add-ons to extend its functionality.

Google Search follows closely behind in 4th place, and it is clear from the comments that this is a essential tool for many. It has long been said that Google is the ultimate e-learning tool and its high ranking here bears this out. When people need to find something out they go to Google. Wikipedia is further down the list but is still an important tool and Google Scholar is not far behind. Other search engines on the list include Dogpile and Quintura.

PowerPoint makes an impressive position in 5th place. For all the complaints we hear about "death by PowerPoint" it is clearly a much exploited tool - and not just to build presentations, although some contributors point out that in order to create narrated, Flash-based presentations you need to use a plug-in to PowerPoint. PowerPoint is pretty unique in that it doesn't have any real contenders in the marketplace (nor on the list), although Keynote is related highly by Mac users, it is still a long way down the list in joint 72nd place. A related presentation tool - Slideshare - makes a good showing at 31=; this is a hosting/sharing service for presentations (already created using PowerPoint) and which allows you too add audio to synchronise with slide animations.

Wordpress appears in 6th place. This blogging tool beats its rival Blogger by only a few places (9th). TypePad and Edublogs are in the bottom half of the list and b2evolution is in joint 101st place

Gmail is the most popular email software to be named in joint 7th place, although Outlook ranks quite highly in joint 17th position with Thunderbird a little behind. Other email software Yahoo Mail and Eudora scrape in at the bottom of the list.

Google Reader, is in joint 7th place, and is the most favourite tool for reading RSS feeds; its rival Bloglines is a few places behind in joint 12th. There's not an awful lot between the two and at the end of the day it appears to be just a matter of preference. Other (dedicated) feed readers - NetNewsWire and FeedRaider - appear a long way down the list in 101= place. So the top two are clearly the main tools in this area.

Word makes a high ranking in 10th position. (Together with PowerPoint, these are the only commercial tools in the Top 10). However Google Docs & Spreadsheets is close on its heels (in 14th position). But it is clear that the MS office products - PowerPoint, Word and Excel (at 22=) - are still very much used and admired, since the other office suites are a little further down the list. - OpenOffice (31=) and Zoho (57=).