sTeam - Designing an integrative infrastructure for Web-based computer-supported cooperative learning
Thorsten Hampel, Reinhard Keil-Slawik · 2001
Learning is a socially embedded design process. But most of today's hypermedia systems fail to properly support both the design-related and the social aspects of learning. Authoring and web-publishing systems aim to support the authors' design process. Consequently, learners' activities are confined to selecting and reading. Based on some fundamental reflections on the role of technology in learning processes, we conclude that top priority must be given to the construction of infrastructures that support cooperative learning processes if we are to properly harness technology's potential. We present a learner-centered -- wholly web-based -- approach for structuring information in teams (sTeam). The key concept in sTeam is virtual space. It draws together cooperation and communication, at the same time embodying the common external memory of a (virtual) learning group. The focus is not, then, on interactive systems for individual accessing of knowledge bases, but rather on the cooperative management and structuring of distributed knowledge bases. Keywords cooperative learning, web-based learning and teaching, learnercentered approaches, cooperation support, sTeam -- structuring information in a team 1.