Over the summer, Jane Hart's Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies in the UK posted an open invitation to learning professionals of various stripes to name and comment on their favorite learning tools. The results are in, and you can view the view the top 100, but you should also look deeper; the survey work-up includes discussion of how the respondents use the tools they favor.

"Search 1800 news engines from 200 countries," reads the tag line.

Customized RSS feeds are available. It is not difficult to imagine scholarly applications for such a powerful news monitoring tool. I expect that Allinonenews.com will be able to persuade at least a few of the many hold-outs I know that they really ought to be subscribing to RSS feeds. I wish, though, that Allinonenews offered more information on their search base. Foreign language content would also be welcome. Perhaps we will see these things there in the future. Even without the niceties, Allinonenews is offering a great service.

Despite the large and ever-growing number of scholarly feeds available, RSS generally gets a tepid reception among the faculty I support. Having to use an aggregator is part of the problem. Aside from learning to use a new application, one is also creating a new "inbox" with all the attendant obligations. For those unsure that they even want to use RSS, the cost of finding out may well seem too high. RssFwd

As a companion piece to a hands-on campus technology expo, a group of us at Wesleyan recently put together a round-up of various Web 2.0 technologies including overviews, practical academic applications, references to live examples, and a few tips on how to get started. You will find our "Web 2.Xpo" blog at http://web20.blogs.wesleyan.edu/. Even if you are already acquainted with most of the content, and even if some of it is tailored to the Wesleyan environment, it might prove useful as a place to direct the uninitiated. And you can leave comments.