Introduction

The use of information and communications technology (ICT) in education is transforming learning and teaching practices in significant ways. For instance, the integration of computer-mediated communication with multimedia courseware, electronic libraries and databases has led to the emergence of a whole new kind of educational experience, namely e-learning or networked learning (Rosenberg, 2001; Steeples and Jones, 2002). Affordances and opportunities offered by ICT are also causing educators and educational providers to rethink and reengineer the nature of their educational practices (Gibson, 1977; Turvey, 1992). A significant product of this reengineering includes a shift in the roles of teachers from being ‘providers and deliverers of subject matter content’ to becoming ‘moderators and facilitators of learning’ within student-centred models of learning and teaching. Some of these models of learning and teaching include ‘computer-supported collaborative learning’ (Koschmann, 1996; McConnell, 2000), ‘computer-supported problem based learning’ (Koschmann et al, 1996), and ‘distributed problem based learning’ (Koschmann, 2002).