This study is a key concept in making design more fruitful in education. It is proposed that what students are doing when they construct knowledge is studying. For several years, Teachers College, Columbia University and the Dalton School (an independent school in New York City), have been collaborating on the Dalton Technology Project. The goal of the project is to use networked multimedia workstations to provide Study Support Environments (SSEs). The core of study is the hermeneutic activity of constructing interpretations. From this perspective, the basis for cognition is interpretation based on background contextual information. In this paper, a framework for SSE design and its application to a specific SSE created as a part of the Dalton Technology Plan is described; and an evaluation that demonstrates its effectiveness is discussed. (Contains 11 references.) (Author/AEF)