The emergence of Technology Based Learning has generated a number of pedagogic problems related to learner diversity.. In this paper we present an interim snapshot of a prototype XSLT / XML hypermedia learning environment able to respond adaptively to individual learner profiles using conditional transclusion.

The paper studies undergraduate students ’ synchronous peer interaction using a shared activity space and a text communication tool. Several groups of students collaborated in order to accomplish a datamodelling task in the context of a Databases University undergraduate course. The paper presents the collaboration support environment, i.e. a concept-mapping tool, used in this study. Subsequently, evaluation of the effectiveness of the environment in the educational process is discussed along various dimensions, like group synthesis, task control, content of communication, roles of the students and the effect of the tools used. Special emphasis is given in the ways the tools and the representations used complement each other and support the process. A discussion on the use of computer-supported collaborative problem solving environments is also included.

students: Design issues and current trends on new cognitive and meta-cognitive tools This paper reviews recent applications concerning technology-based learning systems that promote collaboration among students by distance. The research community in order to support learning as well as collaboration, has designed systems differentiating themselves from common web-based tools (simply enabling collaborative activities), and constitute new cognitive and meta-cognitive tools. The paper, firstly, presents some distinctions of collaborative learning systems from other networked systems, based on assumptions on collaborative learning processes and possibilities of implementation in current educational settings. Secondly, by presenting some cross section systems proceeds to an analysis and categorization of main tools and functionalities that characterizing them. Thirdly, it analyses and discusses extensively the current trade-offs of collaborative systems design. Finally, it attempts a synthesis of necessary tools by a proposed framework and concludes by presenting the main axes of the research agenda concerning design of systems and underlying tools addressed to young students of primary and secondary education.