Design and development of a distributed multi-user visual learning environment

Abstract

This paper describes a distributed visual learning environment, TurtleGraph II, that is designed and developed to assist students to acquire understanding and help build their own models of the deep structure of the recursive function. By applying the whiteboard technology, the TurtleGraph II provides a real time on-line interactive environment that allows multi-users to work on the recursive problems collaboratively. In the paper, we first discuss the learning theory and the instructional model that underpin our work to exploit the potential of the computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL) technology. A methodology is then introduced to explain how the system is designed and developed. The purpose in sharing our work is to foster consideration of both instructional and research issues.