Håkon Tolsby

The digital workbook students constructing their curriculum

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate a constructivist strategy of organizing Internet-based learning. The goal has been to design a learning environment that is open, student centred and problem based, in which the student is given control of the situation instead of being controlled, and which provides the student with sufficient structure and support to solve the problems and to reflect on the experiences (Dewey 1915).

Scandinavian perspectives on CSCL

The tutorial focuses on the specific conditions that are manifested in distributed collaborative learning environments. These new environments designate new forms of learning where the distance is not only distance in space or time as in traditional distance education, but includes the mediation of learning activities by a variety of technological solutions. The new conditions are approached by discussing two Scandinavian traditions as powerful approaches for understanding and exploring a complexity that characterise many distributed collaborative learning environments. The traditions are found within academic systems development and the pedagogical philosophy of problem oriented project pedagogy. The traditions are both based on democratic ideals that emphasise participant involvement, participant control as well as the fact that that learning problems originates in the participant and is owned by the participant.