Realizing the potential for web-based communication provides a challenge for educators. The purpose here is to report students' behavioural and cognitive strategies for active learning when using an unrestricted blog in an academic context. This provides insight into how students are making sense of the incorporation of Web 2.0 technology into higher education. An analytical framework was created to investigate the willingness and competence of students to engage in the social and virtual construction of knowledge. The analysis indicated that, while the students appear to have wanted to complete the task efficiently, the process of critically constructing knowledge was not pursued with vigour. The main implication is therefore that students need to either prepare themselves or be prepared by educators to combine their informal experience of communication technology with academic requirements for actively constructing knowledge in virtual environments. (Contains 4 tables.)