The development of digital technologies, their interfaces and association with communication technology, has opened up the possibility of accessing a large diversity of learning tools and a wide range of resources. Digital technology has the potential to enhance learning in a number of ways, some of which are suggested here.

It can be a communication tool, which provides the means for people who are not co-located to collaborate (e.g. using a wiki, instant messenger, document sharing and track changes) and which provides teachers or more knowledgeable others with the possibility of communicating with learners when they are not face to face (e.g. via email and text messaging).

Some technologies provides a searchable repository of information (on the Internet, on Virtual Learning Environments etc) which suggests that we should take seriously the need for information literacy and issues about quality of information and provenance.

Digital technology allows learners to try things out easily, for example modelling applications, asking ‘what if questions’, using different designs or layouts and being able to change them easily.

Some technologies can be used for working things out (such as calculators, graphing software, statistical number crunching).

Some technologies can be used to create new things, such as documents, graphic designs and architectural drawings, sometimes combining a range of media such as text, graphics and sounds.

Technology can also provide tools for exploring the world (and virtual worlds) to understand its function, structure, history, science, nature, ecology, and possible futures.

All these application areas are represented in the Top 100 Tools for Learning 2010 from the Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies. The top 10 includes Twitter, YouTube, Google Docs, Delicious, Slideshare, Google Reader, Wordpress, Facebook and Moodle.

The above text is extracted from the first Stellar Vision and Strategy Report. The complete report can be downloaded from the Stellar Repository (look for D1.1)