The evolution of critical standards as students design hypermedia documents

We conducted a 2-year design experiment in which 6th- and 7th-grade students designed hypermedia documents that were used by their classmates as tools for learning. In the process of creating these documents, the students learned about research and communication skills as they developed an understanding of topics in social studies. Consensual patterns of student beliefs, which we refer to as critical standards, emerged in the classrooms and were fostered by teachers. Critical standards exemplified and made communal the research and design skills that sustained inquiry. They became a means by which classroom discourse was transformed into a language of learning. We illustrate longitudinal transitions in students' critical standards by focusing on changes in those standards developed for judging the appropriateness of a research question and for evaluating the quality of a hypermedia design. Questions that students considered "good" evolved over the course of the study, from those requiring little effort to answer and even less to evaluate to those affording opportunities for building knowledge. Standards for good hypermedia design evolved from eye-catching presentation to clarity of communication and consideration of audience. We discuss the means by which teachers assisted these transitions in students' beliefs and conclude with some observations about how student design was supported by successive redesign of the learning environment.