Abstract:

A plethora of products, practices and problems have emerged from the ongoing debate about the evolution from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0. Web 2.0 referring to a perceived or proposed second generation of Internet-based services. These Web 2.0 internet based services such as social networking sites, communication tools, and folksonomies emphasize social online collaboration, user-driven content generation and sharing among users.

In recent years Web 2.0 has also been hailed as a new improved version of the World Wide Web (WWW) where the web reverts to its originally conceived purpose as sources of content, functionality and shared experience. Many educators have embraced Web 2.0 as a key element of e-Learning and the use of Web 2.0 applications and technologies is developing a considerable role in higher education.

Online sites like Delicious (http://delicious.com/ ), a "social bookmarks manager" that allows users to create and ‘tag’ their own personal collection of hyperlinks and “Facebook” (www.facebook.com), a popular social networking website are two recent examples of emerging Web 2.0 social networks within the internet.

The use of these Web 2.0 social networks within an educational context however must be grounded within an emerging “Learning Ecology” in which these tools can be used for collaborative and (co)creative purposes. This paper will focus on the educational possibilities of incorporating Web 2.0 social network structures provided by websites such as “Delicious” and “Facebook” within a pragmatic framework and offer suggestions for the effective incorporation of these emergent social networks to enhance the student learning experience.

Keywords:

delicious, facebook, social networking, web 2, 0, education.