The subtitle “Carrying Forward the Conversation” highlights two aspects of
this collection, one thematic, the other structural. As a follow-up to an earlier
collection on CSCL theory and research (Koschmann, 1996), this book
serves to ‘carry forward the conversation’ in the sense that the advancement
of work in this field can be viewed metaphorically as an ongoing conversation.
Much has happened in the years that have passed since the publication
of the earlier CSCL volume in 1996. There have been two additional international
conferences on this topic-ne at the University of Toronto in 1997
and a second at Stanford in 1999.’ The first European conference on CSCL
(Euro-CSCL 2001) took place in the Netherlands in 2001 and plans are moving
forward for the next biennial CSCL meeting to take place at the University of
Colorado at Boulder in 2002. Our object here, however, is less to document
how the field has grown than to foster a meaningful discussion on how the
research program might be advanced in substantive ways