International collaborative learning - the facilitation process

Abstract

International collaborative learning is becoming more viable through a variety of Internet enabled software products. Group Support Systems appear to offer promise. But it is not well understood how to facilitate the teaching and learning process in electronic environments. If education is to involve an interactive process of collaborative inquiry and dialogue between remote groups of learners, then designing meaningful learning experiences presents challenges in logistics, technology support, software design, and pedagogy. To better model the facilitation process in such environments, a theoretical framework based on an extension of Adaptive Structuration Theory is suggested. This framework is then related to experiences with custom application software development using Lotus Notes Domino(TM), internal trials and a limited scale collaborative learning exercise between students at Auckland Institute of Technology and Uppsala University. The paper concludes by providing some recommendations for the redesign of the application, suggesting revisions to the collaborative process based on the framework presented, and discussing further extensions to the trials.