integrating tools into the classroom
SMILE, a learning environment for collaboration and design, is based on our experience with synchronous and asynchronous collaboration tools in the classroom and sound principles of software and interface design. SMILE provides a more holistic approach to supporting student reasoning and activities rather than the more reductionist tool-based approach we had started with. This more holistic approach focuses on the cognitive processes involved in doing design and learning from that experience, rather than focusing on activities that students are carrying out. This new emphasis has also allowed us to identify ways of integrating scaffolding for metacognitive and reflective reasoning that were not naturally integratable into the previous framework.
educational technology collaborative learning environments process-based scaffolding science education