Postmodern Constructivist Pedagogy for Teaching and Learning Cooperatively on the Web

Abstract

A Postmodern and Constructivist theoretical perspective is described with a focus upon teaching, learning, and authentic instruction. Earlier interest in Computer Support for Collaborative Learning has lead to several technologically rich innovations in pedagogy including Cooperative Learning, Computer Supported Intentional Learning Environments (CSILE), Computer Support for Collaborative Learning, and Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC), all of which are being used to deliver graduate and undergraduate instruction with the assistance of recent technologies. The approaches described in this essay are predicated on a "postmodern" assumption that students, within a social context of cooperative peer influence, authentically construct knowledge from their experiences. Using a rationale derived from the WAC community that stresses integration of the writing process across the curriculum, this article focuses on using CSILE as an integral part of a technologically enriched classroom where teaching, learning, and authentic instruction can take place.