The aims are to evaluate the ability of these tools to function effectively for language learning, to use tools that the young University students - part of the "Net Generation" - are already using in their personal lives or might potentially want to use, and to use tools that publish the students' work directly on the Web for others to access and contribute to.

The blended learning courses that are part of the project are based on a social-constructivist approach to learning that entails group collaboration, interaction and cooperation, learner responsibility and autonomy, and learning based on complex, realistic situations. A course blog and personal blogs are virtual spaces where students can develop their communicative fluency in English, show their creativity by exploiting the multi-media possibilities of blogs, and create learning communities through interaction via the comment option.

The work on the blogs is structured based on Gillie Salmon's concept of "e-tivities". A wiki is better suited to project-based work where students have a clear goal: the creation of a repository of shared knowledge on a given topic. Working in wiki promotes collective authoring, knowledge sharing, and teaches students to let go of individual ownership of their writing and truly collaborate.

Both tools proved to be successful when implemented in an upper-intermediate English language course and are currently being used to carry out a USA-Italy exchange and a graduate course in English. The expectation is that not only will students improve their English, but they will learn collaborative and information literacy skills that will serve them in today's knowledge-based networked economy when they graduate.