This book reveals how advances in computer science and human-computer interaction impact Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) environments. The underlying theme of the contributions is the social affordances of physical objects. The collaborative situations illustrated in the book are not necessarily learning situation in a school sense. In summary, this book illustrates a turn in the field of CSCL and emphasizes an important message for a generation of CSCL users.

This book reveals how advances in computer science and human-computer interaction impact Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) environments. The underlying theme of the contributions is the social affordances of physical objects. The collaborative situations illustrated in the book are not necessarily learning situation in a school sense. In summary, this book illustrates a turn in the field of CSCL and emphasizes an important message for a generation of CSCL users.

The European Conference on Technology-Enhanced Learning (EC-TEL 2008) was the third event of a series that started in 2006. The two first editions were organized by Pro- Learn (http://www.prolearn-project.org/), a European Network of Excellence. In 2008, several members of Kaleidoscope, the other European Network of Excellence (http://www.noe-kaleidoscope.org/pub/), joined as co-chair, committee members, reviewers and authors. These two networks are no longer funded, but our aim was to turn EC-TEL into a sustainable series of high-quality events and thereby to contribute to the scientific landscape of technology-enhanced learning. A new network, named STELLAR, will be launched in 2009, with members from both existing networks as well as new members and will support the future editions of this conference. The scope of EC-TEL 2008 covered the different fields of learning technologies: e- cation, psychology, computer science. The contributions in this volume address the - sign of innovative environments, computational models and architectures, results of empirical studies on socio-cognitive processes, field studies regarding the use of te- nologies in context, collaborative processes, pedagogical scenarios, reusable learning objects and emerging objects, groups and communities, learning networks, interaction analysis, metadata, personalization, collaboration scripts, learning adaptation, collabo- tive environments, resources, tangible tools, as well as learning management systems.