The WebReports system is a web-based collaboration platform developed by the WebLabs project.

It was concieved as a tool for teacher led communication between remote groups. The unique feature we designed for was Objects to talk with: allowing users to embed artifacts they had constructed in the conversational medium.

The use of an Iterative design methodology allowed us to react to experimental feedback and adapt the system to a broader use. The first issue we identified was the reluctance of participants to express themselves publicly in an unfamiliar medium. Our remedy for this issue was to Start from self: redesign both the tool and the activity so that users will see  clear individual Purpose and utility in writing reports before they are asked to make them public. This required us to allow for Controlled exposure: gradual shift from private to public spaces.

Repositioning our tool for individual and collaborative use throughout the activities, rather than in highly-orchestrated milestones, led us to reconsider the functionality of our tool. We realized that it can be extended to new uses, such as Active worksheet (incorporating Task in a box elements). On the other hand, we identified a need for Visualised social dynamics in order to help us in Sustaining interaction. This was supported, for example by introducing a League chart, and by acknowledging and leveraging Audience awareness.

We identified a tension between the desire to direct learners to formal and structural representation of knowledge and their vernacular forms of expression. This led us to acknowledge the need for Narrative spaces within a knowledge-building system. We addressed this tension by providing report templates based on the Soft scaffolding pattern: a scaffold which is suggestive rather than restrictive. In our case, it meant that the authors or reports could use the template as a starting point, but from there on had full power to overwrite and adjust the structure to their needs.

Further reading

Yishay Mor and Jakob Tholander and Jesper Holmberg (2006). Designing for cross-cultural web-based knowledge building. In Timothy Koschmann and Daniel D. Suthers and Tak-Wai Chan, editor(s), The 10th Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) conference (2005), 450 - 459, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Taipei, Taiwan. PDF

Yishay Mor and Richard Noss and Celia Hoyles and Ken Kahn and Gordon Simpson (2006). Designing to see and share structure in number sequences. the International Journal for Technology in Mathematics Education, (13)2:65-78, 2006. PDF