While primary studies on technology-mediated informal foreign language (FL) learning are increasingly popular, research synthesis on self-directed FL learning in incidental, out-of-class contexts are scarce. Therefore, this article seeks to address this gap in the literature through a qualitative research synthesis (QRS) on language learning in…

The purpose of the present article was to analyze the interaction between elementary students and a professional design expert. The expert was present in the classroom, facilitating a collaborative lamp designing process together with the teacher. Using the notion of "figured worlds" (Holland et al. 1998), we explored how learning could be…

This paper describes an active method for database design learning through practical tasks development by student teams in a face-to-face course. This method integrates project-based learning, and project management techniques and tools. Some scaffolding is provided at the beginning that forms a skeleton that adapts to a great variety of…

This paper reports on the evolution of a software environment called ClassACT (Class Annotation and Collaboration Tool) from a simple multimedia annotation program to a multi-domain archival database management system. ClassACT was developed at Northwestern University (Illinois) for instructional use, and, although its original goal was to solve a…

Explores how computer-mediated systems may support the professional development of adults by providing environments which allow individual needs and purposes to be met and experience and understanding to be shared. Highlights include descriptions of JITOL (Just in Time Open Learning), a project which combines computer-mediated communications with…

Presented is an activity in which students work in research teams to gather data, integrate computer analyses, and discover the relationships between variables by using a second class lever. A diagram of the lever, a list of processes involved in this activity, and an idealized data table are included. (KR)

Investigates the patterns of intertextual linking as learners engaged in problem solving when using hypermedia. Learners were observed in their synthesized discourse in six cases using Perseus, a Greek culture database. Discusses themes that emerged from learners' on-line protocols and interactions and implications for instructional designers.…

The Computer-Supported Intentional Learning Environments (CSILE) database has been developed to support students' progressive discourse. Students can externalize their thoughts in the database in the form of texts or graphics, and then they can manipulate their represented knowledge in building further knowledge. They can asynchronously…

Examines how elementary school students improved their scientific discourse on a computer-networked database environment called Computer-Supported Intentional Learning Environments (CSILE). Results showed that system affordance specially designed for jointly written discourse in the discussion-note based (D-CSILE) configuration significantly…

Internet learning opportunities via the National Science Foundation-supported New Jersey Networking Infrastructure in Education project are described. Their data-centered approach to science and math skills instruction is illustrated by two examples from each of the three styles of activities: (1) collaboration; (2) using public domain databases;…

This paper describes the use of the CoFIND (Collaborative Filter in N Dimensions) system to evaluate two assessment styles. CoFIND is a resource database that organizes itself around its users' needs. Learners enter resources, categorize, then rate them using "qualities," aspects of resources which learners find worthwhile, the n…

Computer-Supported Intentional Learning Environments (CSILE) is a database system in which learners collaboratively construct the knowledge represented in the database. This study examines how students in a grade-five and -six classroom built their database on a science topic, electricity. Differences in cognitive and operative activities between…

In Computer-Supported Intentional Learning Environments (CSILE), students use a computer-database system as a tool to store and organize their curriculum-related knowledge as a means of sharing information and thoughts with peers, supporting both individual and collaborative learning. This study contrasts two conditions: face-to-face collaboration…

Intergenerational learning communities develop when learners from one class create materials that learners from later classes can use. If information for a class is collected and maintained in an electronic archive, each successive class, or generation, can use that material and build upon it. The compilation of documents results in a…

A Collaborative Learning Environment (CLE) for second year Physiology students, involving timetabled tutorials, a student-friendly learning space, and a variety of computer-based and traditional resources has been previously shown to impact positively on student learning. In the sessions described in this paper, students used a semester-long group…