Using the Web to Promote Inquiry and Collaboration: A Snapshot of the Inquiry Page's Development

Inquiry-based learning strives to make learning more meaningful to the learner, however many classrooms provide little evidence of student inquiry. One reason for this is the lack of support for teachers interested in sustaining inquiry in their classrooms. The Inquiry Page, a cross-institutional and interdisciplinary web site, aims to support inquiry and collaboration by encouraging teachers to inquire, communicate, construct, and express themselves. By capturing a snapshot of the Inquiry Page's development process, this paper provides a model for educators interested in developing a collaborative web site. Activity theory guides the analysis and description of the inquiry community and development tools. To further our understanding of the web site's usefulness, we designed and conducted a focus group session. The results of the focus group not only suggest necessary improvements, but also validate our development process.is peer reviewe