The aim of this article is to discuss the theoretical and practical problems in effecting transfer between school and work, and to present a new conceptualisation of transfer called developmental transfer that shifts the emphasis from the individual transfer of knowledge to the collaborative efforts of organisations to create new knowledge and practices. We give an overview and evaluate the current notions of transfer and present the need and characteristics of the developmental transfer. In a case study, we also describe the concrete tools for promoting the developmental transfer in professional higher education. A new way of enhancing collaboration between the school and the workplace is based on successful boundary crossing and the formation of a shared object between activity systems.

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The research literature in CSCL has rarely addressed the question of how institutional contexts contribute to constituting the meanings and functions of CSCL applications. The argument that we develop here concerns how the institutional context impacts the use of CSCL applications and how this impact should be conceptualized. In order to structure to our argument, we introduce a distinction between systemic and dialogic approaches to CSCL research. We develop our argument by working through a selection of relevant studies belonging to the two perspectives, and conclude that not enough attention has been given to the emergent characteristics of activities where CSCL tools have been introduced. This is particularly the case in studies belonging to a systemic approach. Our basic argument is that a dialogic stance can provide important insights into how institutional practices shape the meanings and functions of CSCL tools. A dialogic perspective provides opportunities for making sense of learning and knowledge construction at different levels of activity, while at the same time retaining sensitivity to the mutually constitutive relationship between levels.

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