This paper discusses the use of social software tools in distance education applications. It presents data from an exploratory application of social software tools in a paced, graduate level course delivered online. Results indicate that the functionality of current generation of social software tools can be duplicated using existing LMS and email systems, thus they offer only limited relative advantage over older technologies in this context. Ongoing work will investigate their relative advantage in more open forms of self-paced and continuous enrollment education and non-formal learning