Representatives from more than 20 institutions making up a research and teaching network met to discuss and investigate a web application designed to promote knowledge sharing and understanding. The web application, called Fieldtrip, enables students, professors and researchers to virtually share their experiences and findings from real field trips. This study investigates how professors from the network conceived Fieldtrip and their approach to designing and teaching student learning experiences using it. Results show that the professors had divergent understandings of the potential of the web application, and that qualitatively better ways of conceiving Fieldtrip were related to more robust approaches to design for learning and teaching. The implications of this study as an exploration into professor experiences of web applications are important if universities wish to make the best use of technologies in learning for their students and professors.