ABSTRACT
It is easy to be excited by, and carried away with, the idea that social media, social networking and game-based collaboration are the panacea for all learning ills. Indeed, who has not tried to leverage the power of these technologies into their learning programme design? Generally, though, what we see is functionality bolted onto traditional designs with no clear rationale for how they can be used by learners or what behavioural characteristics they are trying to promote. Betts has taken a radically different approach; in this chapter he reports on a learning environment, Curatr, that largely employs pre-existing content to partially populate a space where learners collaboratively make sense and share experience. He presents some fascinating insights into the delicate balancing act of stimulating quality collaborative acts and points to a relationship between participation and final academic outcome. Readers will find many valuable pointers on how to leverage participation in their programmes together with a synthesis of ideas presented in the form of a collaborative learning cycle.
