ABSTRACT
The problem of transfer remains one of the most difficult challenges for schooling: knowledge and skills that students learn in a classroom is often not used in out-of-school contexts. To address this problem, this paper analyzes educational interaction conducted via long-distance electronic networks. We present a new methodology, called Semantic Trace Analysis. From our analyses, we present two possible solutions to the transfer problem. First, we describe an organizing framework for network interactions, which we call “receiver site transfer”, which provides a functional environment for students' problem solving. In addition, we describe some initial explorations of “teleapprenticeships”, instructional interactions through which students learn knowledge and skills by interacting with adults outside the school system. To the extent that adults increasingly use electronic networks for their work, we will be able to avoid the transfer problem by instructing students within the same context that they will use that instruction.
