A Methodology for Integrating the Social Web Environment in Software Engineering Education

The aim of this article is a technological revitalization of software engineering education from human and social perspectives. It adopts a systematic approach towards integrating the Social Web environment (including technologies and applications based on those technologies) in software engineering education, both inside and outside the classroom. To that regard, a feasibilitysensitive methodology for incorporating the Social Web environment in software engineering education that supports a heterogeneous combination of objectivism and constructivism is proposed and explored. The potential prospects of such integration and related concerns are illustrated by practical examples. [Article copies are available for purchase from InfoSci-on-Demand.com] IntroductIon In the last decade, the discipline of software engineering has gained increasing significance in computer science and engineering education. It is evident that software engineering education (SEE) needs to be sensitive to the variations and evolution of the social and technical environment around it. In particular, any changes in the information technology (IT) environment need to be reflected in SEE, if it leads to viable opportunities and demonstrated benefits. Indeed, there have been calls for a reform of SEE in which technology is given a prominent place (Frailey, 1998; Kamthan, 2008; Shaw, 2000). The Social Web, or as it is more commonly referred to by the pseudonym Web 2.0 (O’Reilly, 2005), is the perceived evolution of the Web in a direction that is driven by ‘collective intelligence’, realized by IT, and characterized by user par-