Implementing Authentic Tasks in Web-Based Learning Environments - Younghee
Woo, Jan Herrington, Shirley Agostinho, and Thomas C. Reeves; Educause Quar

Students studying a computer simulation of global warming share ideas about factors influencing global temperatures. They vary the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by vehicles and factories or manipulate the quantity of green plants in the simulation. They observe that reducing industrial emissions or adding trees to the environment makes global warming less of a threat.1 This scenario describes students collaborating to carry out an authentic task, in this case reducing global warming. Under the influence of social constructivist learning theories, many educators have become interested in students' active construction of meaning grounded in their own experience.2 To support the construction of meaning, students need to interact with one another in accomplishing authentic activities in social contexts similar to those in which these activities will actually be used.3 Peer interaction can enhance the construction of meaning and advance students' intellectual growth.

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