WebGuide: Guiding Collaborative Learning on the Web with Perspectives

Abstract

Published 7/6/2001. The authors describe the development of a Web-based tool called WebGuide to mediate and structure collaborative learning. This software uses an innovative mechanism to define a flexible system of perspectives on a shared knowledge construction space. WebGuide provides an electronic and persistent workspace for individuals and teams to develop and share distinctive points of view on a topic. The authors are designing the software and associated usage practices by trying it out in a middle school classroom and an advanced graduate seminar. Their experience in these use situations has raised a range of questions concerning theoretical and practical issues, which are driving their research. This paper is a reflection on what the authors are learning collaboratively about how software artifacts can mediate learning and shared cognition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)