It is apparent that the primary use of the Web is for communication. With Web 2.0, a second generation of Web-savvy users is embracing applications which assist the creation of communities of practice (CoPs). These applications, in the form of P2P distributed networks, and in sites like flickr, MySpace, and YouTube, allow users with like interests to find each other and form associations in which members can share information. These CoPs are self-regulating knowledge networks in which individuals are intrinsically motivated to participate and publish.

The principles of Web 2.0 can be applied to e-learning to create opportunities for students to form e-learning communities of practice (ElCoPs). ElCoPs support collaborative and negotiated learning by allowing students to form peer networks, initiate peer teaching, share and workshop their projects, and to harness collective data. Tools such as wikis, blogs, and discussion forums, and the use of third-generation search techniques such as social tagging and preference filtering, afford e-learning interactivity which goes beyond radio buttons and static e-repositories. Knowledge networking and negotiated learning become the pedagogical foci of such interactivity.

One example of this kind of ElCoPs interactivity, initiated by the Horwood Language Centre at the University of Melbourne, is Virtual Babel (VB). VB is a 3D virtual space in which students, in the form of online avatars, practice their target language by meeting in this online environment and negotiating problem-solving tasks through synchronous exchange and manipulation of the objects of the virtual environment. The problems with VB, however, have been: 1) an over-reliance on an application subject to the vagaries of a technology in flux (the use of the now-discontinued Adobe Atmosphere), and 2) that the 3D construct, Babel, was not built by the students themselves.

The proposition, then, is to offer learners the collaborative tools and the context for participation, and to give them the opportunity to establish and modify these tools as they see fit. Negotiation of shared space, creation of a knowledge network through tag clouds, personalisation of an Open Source LMS through preference filtering, collaborative editing and refinement of topics on a wiki, profiling and journaling on blogs, workshopping and peer review through forums and conferencing--these are some of the student-driven learning opportunities afforded by Web 2.0 applications. As low participation rates in first generation e-learning sites indicate: if you build it, they may not come. Cede control, however, and let them do the building, and--as some of the most popular websites today indicate--they will not only come, they may build a Babel that is both architecturally and pedagogically innovative.