Summary: Educating practitioners in a future perspective: Bridging the worlds of theory and practice educating physiotherapy students. This paper introduces development of a principle model for pedagogical design of CSCL courses. As theoretical grounding for this model I have used Participatory Research (Skovsmose and Borba, 2000), Activity Theory (Engeström, 1987) and Social Theory of Learning (Wenger, 2003). My paper describes how the model is used, implementing a virtual learning environment in a field of education previously characterised by a tradition of apprenticeship in a face-to-face context. The purpose of using the computer was to take up one of the big challenges of the education of practitioners – to combine theory with practical competences. But how do we use research and scientific knowledge in harmony with experience and skills represented in practice? And how do we - physically separated from the practice world - design learning environments that closely match the environment in which a profession unfolds? Dillenbourg (2000) suggests a virtual connection between professionals outside schools and the students, and Schön (1987) describes a reflective “practicum”: ”as a setting for the creation of bridges between the school and the worlds of university and practice... a place in which practitioners learn to reflect on their own tacit theories of the phenomena of practice, in the presence of representatives of those disciplines whose formal theories are comparable to the tacit theories of practitioners” (Schön, 1987). Bringing students together with experienced practitioners in a virtual reflective practicum could then be an answer to the questions above. In this case we see a common reflectivity regarding the practicum as a community described by Wenger (2003) with the term ”boundary practice”. At one particular school of physiotherapy I have designed a 2 1/2 weeks’ CSCL course based on the ideas outlined above. A social constructivistic approach, Activity Theory and Social Theory of Learning, has been used as the theoretical grounding for the learning activities, which were directed towards goals involving clinical reasoning and reflection on practice. As a visual ”trigger” for net-based dialogues, I have used streamed video sequences, showing experienced physiotherapists working in practice. The participants in these dialogues were students, teachers from the school and physiotherapists (clinical teachers) from practice. After the CSCL course I have evaluated by analyzing group conferences in the learning environment, and by a student questionnaire. The results of this specific CSCL course indicate that almost all the students like the idea of the virtual practicum and they find that the virtual context has given opportunities for learning in common. Furthermore the results show that the students have been working goal-directed, and the establishment of a “virtual boundary learning practice” has taken place. However, some of the findings show that not all of the students have been engaged in the course. Therefore I have lined up some hypothesis about that, at the end of my paper. These have to be examined before the next boundary CSCL course is introduced. Summary: Educating practitioners in a future perspective: Bridging the worlds of theory and practice educating physiotherapy students. This paper introduces development of a principle model for pedagogical design of CSCL courses. As theoretical grounding for this model I have used Participatory Research (Skovsmose and Borba, 2000), Activity Theory (Engeström, 1987) and Social Theory of Learning (Wenger, 2003). My paper describes how the model is used, implementing a virtual learning environment in a field of education previously characterised by a tradition of apprenticeship in a face-to-face context. The purpose of using the computer was to take up one of the big challenges of the education of practitioners – to combine theory with practical competences. But how do we use research and scientific knowledge in harmony with experience and skills represented in practice? And how do we - physically separated from the practice world - design learning environments that closely match the environment in which a profession unfolds? Dillenbourg (2000) suggests a virtual connection between professionals outside schools and the students, and Schön (1987) describes a reflective “practicum”: ”as a setting for the creation of bridges between the school and the worlds of university and practice... a place in which practitioners learn to reflect on their own tacit theories of the phenomena of practice, in the presence of representatives of those disciplines whose formal theories are comparable to the tacit theories of practitioners” (Schön, 1987). Bringing students together with experienced practitioners in a virtual reflective practicum could then be an answer to the questions above. In this case we see a common reflectivity regarding the practicum as a community described by Wenger (2003) with the term ”boundary practice”. At one particular school of physiotherapy I have designed a 2 1/2 weeks’ CSCL course based on the ideas outlined above. A social constructivistic approach, Activity Theory and Social Theory of Learning, has been used as the theoretical grounding for the learning activities, which were directed towards goals involving clinical reasoning and reflection on practice. As a visual ”trigger” for net-based dialogues, I have used streamed video sequences, showing experienced physiotherapists working in practice. The participants in these dialogues were students, teachers from the school and physiotherapists (clinical teachers) from practice. After the CSCL course I have evaluated by analyzing group conferences in the learning environment, and by a student questionnaire. The results of this specific CSCL course indicate that almost all the students like the idea of the virtual practicum and they find that the virtual context has given opportunities for learning in common. Furthermore the results show that the students have been working goal-directed, and the establishment of a “virtual boundary learning practice” has taken place. However, some of the findings show that not all of the students have been engaged in the course. Therefore I have lined up some hypothesis about that, at the end of my paper. These have to be examined before the next boundary CSCL course is introduced.