E-portfolio and semantic web to support informal learning in social network environment

The informal learning opportunities created by the Web 2.0 applications and the increasingly use of social networks, allow users to interact and collaborate in new ways. Students use new learning environments which are structurally different from traditional e-learning environments, in which the boundaries between the learning contexts and social spheres disappear. In these informal unstructured learning contexts, the definition of the students' competences plays a central role. The use of software environment to model learner profiles using semantic technologies appears more and more important. In this paper we propose to extend the FOAF ontology, used to describe people and their personal relationship, with an ontology related to student portfolio used to model competencies. In particular, we integrate FOAF with the IMS Learning Portfolio model in order to support the creation of new Web 2.0 learning environment based on social networks and competencies. This type of environment is useful to manage the evolution of student educational experiences in the informal learning activities carried on in social network.