Abstract

The Internet has evolved to its current form as a result of user-generated content and interactivity and this phenomenon must be more widely recognised in formal education. This paper proposes that popular websites which are reflective of how society uses the Internet on a daily basis should provide the context for authentic and engaging online learning experiences. This position is established through the integration of three socio-cultural views of learning: Situated Cognition, Distributed Cognition and Activity Theory. The integration of these three theories enables evaluation of the Internet as a mediating tool of authentic activity which is socially constructed and bound. The popular online auction site eBay is used to demonstrate the ideas raised throughout this paper.