[quoting Leshin, 1 May 94] The Internet and its communication and informational resources are wonderful examples of where we should shift our rigid instructional design paradigms and begin to think about these resources as cognitive tools.
Absolutely! One of the chapters in the Mindtools books is on computer conferencing. In addition to a cognitive tools, it's a good collaborative instructional design tool.
One example is the MUSE (Multi-User Simulation Environment) that is now being used as a learning environment in progressive schools.
This is what Scardamalia & Bereiter call a CSILE (computer supported intentional learning environment). At Denver, we did work with collaborative knowledge construction environments.
Teaching, Learning... For those of us raised on learning objectives and learning outcomes, it is difficult not to think learning in the traditional sense.
Oh, I think that we can find rubrics, such as critical thinking, that will satisfy even those most skeptical. Assessment is currently the Achilles heal of constructivism, but I think that we are making progress.