Peer-to-Peer and Learning Objects: The New Potential for Collaborative Constructivist Learning Online

Despite the fact that collaboration is as well studied as any instructional strategy, online collaborative learning efforts have been slow to succeed. Client-server computing models are currently giving way to newer peer-to-peer models. At the same time, traditional conceptions of online learning as electronic page turning are falling to the learning object model. The new paradigm of peer-to-peer, learning objects-based systems provides an opportunity for online collaborative learning to be appropriately architected, and therefore, successful. Specifically, learning objects systems force their designers to consider the important role of context mediation in learning, and design accordingly. Peer-to-peer systems make real time collaboration, a critical component for successful collaborative learning, possible.