Turning Web 2.0 Social Software into Versatile Collaborative Learning Solutions

In the framework of the European Integrated Project PALETTE, the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) is developing the eLogbook Web 2.0 social software. The purpose of eLogbook is to support tacit and explicit knowledge management in communities of practice. It can be customized by the users to serve as an asset management system, as a task management system or as a discussion platform. In this paper, the innovative Computer-Human Interaction features of eLogbook are introduced and its deployment scenario to support collaborative laboratory activities in engineering education is described. The main idea is to sustain interaction for learning purpose within self-organized teams that integrate -on a seamless level- both human actors (students, teaching assistants) and non-human actors such as laboratory equipments or software agents.