EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES
Blogs and Wikis: Environments for On-line Collaboration
FIRST-GENERATION WEB
Asynchronous Tools
It cannot be said that first-generation tools are going to disappear from the Internet. Since e-mail programs support formatted text and graphics, e-mails are more attractive and versatile than in the days of plain ASCII and they continue to be a viable tool for tandem learning and classroom exchanges. Another popular one is discussion forums. However, compared to e-mails, discussion forums facilitate group exchanges, and they maintain automatically a log of all messages in a threaded, hierarchical structure. Thus, some instructors think that they have much more advantages than e-mails have.
Synchronous Tools
One of them is chat-rooms and when entering the chat-rooms, learners face even more the issue of knowing rules and conventions. The attractiveness of instant messaging for language learners resides particularly in the addition of voice and video options for communication. While the various tools such as iVisit or PalTalk differ in the audio quality, the number of simultaneous users, and the support for different operating systems, all offer an incredible communicative power for the cost of an Internet connection.
SECOND-GENERATION WEB
Blogs
Blog entries are normally followed by a comment button, allowing readers to write a reaction, which is then logged and linked, along with all other comments, into the original text. While most blogs are created and managed by individuals, group blogs are also possible. Blogs are easily linked and cross linked, to create larger on-line communities. That is now the case with technology-related blogs, which form what is essentially one, large, loosely interwoven net of information, as blog entries are linked, referenced, and debated.
While blogs of all kinds abound today on the Internet, most are personal or journalistic. However, there has been increasing interest in using blogs in education. Language learners could use a personal blog, linked to a course, as an electronic portfolio, showing development over time. By publishing the blog on the Internet, the student has the possibility of writing for readers beyond classmates, not usually possible in discussion forums. Readers in turn can comment on what they've read, although blogs can be placed in secured environments as well.

RSS and Wiki
RSS stands for "really simple syndication" and is an implementation of XML first developed by Netscape as a way for users to add "channels" to My Netscape pages. RSS supplies rich meta-data about Web-based resources, which can then be automatically retrieved and cataloged by RSS software, such as amphetaDesk or NetNewsWire, usually described as news readers or news aggregators.
Wikis have been around for some time and are popular among technology buffs. The original WikiWikiWeb project is dedicated to software programming and is quite extensive. Blogs can be highly personal, wikis are intensely collaborative. Wiki sites, like any pages on the Web, can be secured with password protection or other means, but wikis have built-in safeguards against malicious behavior (page changes are logged, page deletions must be seconded to take effect). The goal of Wiki sites is to become a shared repository of knowledge, with the knowledge base growing over time. Unlike chat rooms, wiki content is expected to have some degree of seriousness and permanence.