Many of the web tools are based on social software for supporting networks of people, content and services that are more adaptable and responsive to changing needs and goals, that is, software adapts to its environment, instead of requiring its environment to adapt to software.

The main aspect of the social software is that it offers the opportunity for narrowing the divide between producers and consumers: through creation and sharing consumers become themselves producers. One implication of this is the potential for a new ecology of open content.

Besides, social software leads to widespread adoption of portfolios for learners bringing together learning from different sources, providing an on-going record of lifelong learning.

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This text has been extracted from Grahan Attwell’s “Personal Learning Environments - the future of eLearning?” article (eLearning Papers - Vol 2, Nº 1 - January 2007 - ISSN 1887-152)