Computer-Supported
Intentional Learning Environment (CSILE)
The Computer Supported Intentional Learning Environment (CSILE) is a network system that provides a communal database for student use. It was designed to function as an environment for collaborative learning (Scardamalia & Bereiter, 1993). Students create their own nodes (text or graphics) and enter them on the database. Other students access the nodes and make comments, and the system notifies an author when comments have been received. As a result, students obtain practice in refining their own thoughts by reading and commenting upon the responses of others.
CSILE was developed by Marlene Scardamalia and Carl Bereiter at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, a graduate school of education affiliated with the University of Toronto. It has been used in a research program within Toronto schools for more than five years. Apple Computer provided support for introducing CSILE to a number of American schools, including Hawthorne Elementary School in Oakland, California. The program was initially implemented within three Hawthorne fifth/sixth-grade classrooms; a third/fourth-grade classroom was added later. Each classroom was equipped with eight Macintosh computers and one printer. Hawthorne's CSILE classrooms were linked together via a local area network (LAN). The participating teachers were sent to an introductory three-day training session in St. Louis, where they were introduced to the CSILE model of collaborative knowledge building and had the opportunity to meet other CSILE teachers from across the country.
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