Designing socio-technical environments in support of meta-design and social creativity

This paper provides elements of a transformational conceptual framework for CSCL by focusing on how learning takes place when the answer is not known (this being the case for complex design problems in numerous domains encountered in lifelong learning activities). The paper postulates, explores, and discusses visions, theories, systems, practices, and methods for CSCL with a focus on reflective communities (bringing stakeholders together from many different backgrounds, requiring cultural and epistemological pluralism to make all voices heard), metadesign (allowing owners of problems to act as designers and active contributors, and not only as consumers), and social creativity (bringing different and often controversial points of view together to create a shared understanding among stakeholders that can lead to new insights, new ideas, and new artifacts). Innovative socio-technical environments are needed to make progress in achieving these objectives. Examples and characteristics of such environments will be briefly presented and discussed. Some implications and challenges for future research in CSCL are derived and articulated.