During the design phase of the experiment, the traditional teaching and learning dichotomy also became a relevant issue for the key design decisions. The question to be resolved was whether the Internet site design should focus primarily on learning outcomes or teaching facilitation. There are competing viewpoints on education. Instructionists advocate the traditional belief of education, whereby students learn better through improvement of teaching instruction. Teachers are active.
Students are passive.
Antithetically, constructionists believe that students advance through discovery and participation - learning and remembering, by discovering the specific knowledge they require and not simply receiving it from others. To improve this learning process, constructionists maintain that minimal structured individual guidance from teachers is needed. Constructionists and Instructionists continue to debate the relative merits or otherwise of IT in support of their respective points of view. For example, constructionists hasten to add, that teachers cannot be replaced with computers. Teachers are extremely versatile and adaptive - their pedagogic ability greatly exceeds any computer learning packages.