ABSTRACT
During the 1990s, educators have proposed a number of conceptual frame works to guide the design and use of learning environments. Each chapter in this book deals with one of these. The extent to which these frameworks are similar or different, or even new, is the question this book seeks to answer. Yet, even a superficial glance at the chapters in this book will reveal that these frameworks are, for the most part, learner-centered, concerned with learner activity, cognizant of the importance of context-including social con text-for learning, and rely to some extent on nonhuman artifacts or tech nologies for their implementation (see also Chapter 1, this volume). The frameworks are also somewhat ill formed-a common characteristic of pretheoretic conceptions in the social sciences.
