Future Learning Environment (FLE) - a Tool for Collaborative Progressive Inquiry

Teemu Leinonen, teemu.leinonen@mlab.uiah.fi
Kimmo Wideroos, kimmo.wideroos@mlab.uiah.fi
Hanni Muukkonen, hanni.muukkonen@helsinki.fi
Kai Hakkarainen, kai.hakkarainen@helsinki.fi

Media Lab, University of Art & Design Helsinki UIAH
Department of Psychology, University of Helsinki

The Future Learning Environment (FLE) - multi-user server software is based on recent achievements of cognitive research on educational practices and computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL). The FLE has been developed in 1998-99 by the Media Laboratory, University of Art and Design, Helsinki, and the Department of Psychology, University of Helsinki. The FLE -software consists of several modules which are simultaniously usable for a group of people through standard web browser. The modules are designed to facilitate collaborative knowledge building and progressive inquiry in university and vocational education.

The FLE software provides each user Virtual Webtop (with folders and waste basket) to store and share digital materials with fellow users. Every Webtop has direct links to those of the other members of the study group, enabling all to share their materials. The Knowledge Building module facilitates between-user interaction and provides means for conducting multiple discussions simultaneously within a course. Messages posted to the database are labeled with a ‘Category of Inquiry’ reflecting a step in inquiry process. The Jam Session module encourages free flow of ideas and allows experimentation with different ways of representing knowledge.

About 60 courses and seminars have adopted the prototype of the FLE -software as a tool for developing shared expertise, represent various academic domains (e.g., new media studies, psychology of thinking and learning, designing, language learning methodology, teacher education). Further, FLE -software has been used in developing teamwork and organizational planning (e.g., in the field of telecommunications and advertising). The study results from academic domains indicate that the FLE –software has provided these groups means for structuring their efforts to produce new knowledge, and for collaborating without time constrains (See Muukkkonen et all. in CSCL99, Papers Session Track B: Imagineering the Future of CSCL).