Putting six students in a room with a table, chairs, whiteboard, coffee, and donuts does not make an effective team.

Chapter 3 discusses a series of educational techniques that may be used to overcome the barriers. The impetus here is, however, more on the barriers in the first ring than on those in the second and third rings. This is the traditional focus of educational researchers. The chapter presents four techniques, namely applying collaborative learning in DLGs, incorporating interactivity into web-based CSCL environments, changing the instructor’s and the learner’s role in DLGs, and increasing social presence in DLGs. The last educational technique begins to break down the barriers in the second ring.

Computer-mediated worldwide networks have enabled education to shift from contiguous learning groups to asynchronous distribute learning groups (DLGs) utilizing computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environments. Although these CSCL environments can support communication and collaboration, research and field observation report findings that are not always positive. Two pitfalls impede achieving the desired social interaction and group dynamics needed for learning in these DLGs, namely (1) taking for granted that participants will socially interact simply because the environment makes it possible and (2) neglecting the social and social psychological dimension of social interaction outside of the task context. This chapter describes the specific pedagogical techniques (distance) educators apply for avoiding the pitfalls and for overcoming the lack of a specific CSCL pedagogy which has been identified as a barrier in the first Ring.