Distributed cognition, learning webs, and domain-oriented design environments

The human mind is limited, making collaboration with other humans and with things (in our case with compu­ tational environments) a necessity rather than a lUxury. Relevant knowledge for work and for learning is dis­ tributed in our head, in the heads of others, and in the environment. Learning webs are used by (virtual) communities of practice. Domain-oriented design environments (DODEs) support learning webs by allowing all stake­ holders in a design process to learn and work collabo­ ratively with each other and with their computational environments. DODEs serve as models for the design of collaborative working and learning environments by exploring and supporting different relationships and task responsibilities between humans and computers. DODEs integrate working and learning by grounding learning in self-directed, authentic activities. They support learning on demand as an essential ele­ ment of life-long learning. The creation of DODEs faces the fundamental challenge to make them simulta­ neously learner-directed and supportive. DODEs tran­ scend other computer-supported cooperative learning systems, which employ the computer only as a medium with few interpretable components. They integrate hu­ mans and computational resources more creatively by acknowledging that persons become skill resources only when they consent to do so, whereas computa­ tional environments are available at the bidding of the user.