Networked Collaborative Learning

Preface

Guglielmo Trentin

For some time now, the sustainability of technology-enhanced learning (TEL) has largely been regarded in economic and organisational terms. However, the achievement of high quality in TEL depends on attention being focused first and foremost on pedagogical considerations. Whenever these remain in the background, the result is almost invariably the same: passive, individual study of educational materials. Such content-driven approaches are widely held to be cheaper, and are therefore commonly adopted. But they almost always lead to limited-quality learning since they deprive the process of its other crucial dimension, namely social interaction.

The social dimension is particularly vital in university teaching, where ...