In this short presentation, I ground my area of research in relation to one of the seminal thinkers in education theory. Grounding my understanding of how we learn in the writings of Lev Vygotsky and the sociocultural school of thought, I will then look at how Vygotsky’s notion of tool mediation has been expanded through Activity Theory, by making explicit the social context in which tool appropriation takes place in education, the use of contradictions to expose tensions, with some examples from the literature. Analyzing technology mediated learning in social context prepared for coursework module EDCI 614 at the University of Victoria.

1. Analysing technology mediated
learning in social context
Michael Paskevicius
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUfIO9F8

2. Mediated learning
Image from Ng'ambi, D. (2010) Mobile Learning in Africa: a case of anonymous SMS
http://www.slideshare.net/Ngambi1MLearning/
spider-Web-Luc_Viatour | from -
http://www.flickr.com/photos/luc_viatour/4247957432/Auth
or: Luc Viatour https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/
2.0/

3. A sociocultural view of learning
• A conscious attempt to avoid seeing
knowledge either as purely mental
(idealist/rationalist tradition) or as physical
and independent of human activities (realist
perspective)
• Learning has to do with how people
appropriate and master tools for thinking
and acting that exist in a given culture or
society
Wertsch (1991) quoted in Saljo, 1999

4. Mediating artifacts
Adult
Child
talks to
Text
World
Scaffolding (Lave & Wenger, 1991)
Assisted performance (Tharp & Gallimore, 1998)

5. Mediating artifacts
Adult
Child
Communicates
online
Text
World
Scaffolding (Lave & Wenger, 1991)
Moving this educational episode
online:
• child and student can still speak
with one another
• adult can still use meditational
means employing scaffolding and
assisted performance strategies to
mediate the reading of the text
• two humans are no longer sharing
the same physical space
• physical cues and body language
are lost
• basic rules and dynamics of
conversation are different
• way in which they share the text is
different
• both subject to technical glitches
• distractions no longer shared
Assisted performance (Tharp & Gallimore, 1998)

6. Activity Theory
Engestrom, 1987

7. Adapted from Murphy & Manzanares, 2008

8. Contradictions within activity systems
• Historically accumulating structural tensions within
and between activity systems
• Potential sources of transformation and development
PSYSC613 - Gibson : taken from -
http://psysc613.wikispaces.com/Gibsonhttp://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by
-sa/3.0

9. Contradictions within activity systems
The teachers' absence in the [online] discussion conflicted with learners'
expectations in two ways: their learning process was severely inhibited on the net
and both their individual and group work was seriously impaired. Since there was
no interlocutor for student questions, no discussion partner or any online
guidance, etc., the students felt abandoned by their teacher and this led to a loss
of confidence in them. (Dippe, 2006)
“The introduction of the computer as a tool has required a new division of labour
due in part to the novelty of the tool but also due to the fact that the teacher is
unable to assist all students with the computer tasks. Hence, students have
become teachers of other students.” (Hardman, 2005)

10. Discussion
• Activity theory as a potential lens of inquiry for
investigating new technologies in educational
settings
• Views technology as mediating artifact
• Frames technology
use in the context
of human activities
Droplets | from -
https://www.flickr.com/photos/78508065@N00/4044345879/Author: Lip Jin Lee
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/

11. References
• Bellamy, R. K. (1996). Designing educational technology: Computer-mediated change. In
Context and consciousness: Activity theory and human-computer interaction, 123-146.
• Cole, M. (1998). Cultural psychology: A once and future discipline. Harvard University Press.
• Conole, G., Dyke, M., Oliver, M., & Seale, J. (2004). Mapping pedagogy and tools for effective
learning design. Computers & Education, 43(1), 17-33.
• Dippe, G. (2006). The missing teacher: Contradictions and conflicts in the experience of
online learners. Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Networked Learning
2006. Lancaster: Lancaster University.
• Engeström, Y. (1987). Learning by expanding: An activity-theoretical approach to
developmental research. Helsinki: Orienta-Konsultit.
• Engeström, Y. (2001). Expansive Learning at Work: Toward an Activity-theoretical
Conceptualization. Journal of Education and Work, 14(1), pp. 133-156.
• Hardman, J. (2005). An exploratory case study of computer use in a primary school
mathematics classroom: New technology, new pedagogy? Perspectives in Education, 23(4),
99-111.
• Jonassen, D. H., & Rohrer-Murphy, L. (1999). Activity theory as a framework for designing
constructivist learning environments. Educational Technology Research and Development,
47(1), 61-79.
• Kaptelinin, V. (2006). Acting with technology: Activity theory and interaction design. Mit
Press.

12. References
• Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation.
Cambridge university press.
• Murphy, E., & Manzanares, M. A. R. (2008). Contradictions between the virtual and physical
high school classroom: A third‐generation Activity Theory perspective. British Journal of
Educational Technology, 39(6), 1061-1072.
• Murphy, E., & Rodriguez-Manzanares, M. A. (2008). Using activity theory and its principle of
contradictions to guide research in educational technology. Australasian Journal of
Educational Technology, 24(4), 442-457.
• Norman, D. A. (2002). The design of everyday things. Basic books.
• Rieber, R. W., Robinson, D. K., Bruner, J. E., Cole, M. E., Glick, J. E., Ratner, C. E., & Stetsenko,
A. E. (2004). The essential Vygotsky. Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.
• Saljo, R. (1999). A sociocultural perspective on the human-technology link. Learning with
computers: Analysing productive interaction, 144.
• Tharp, R.G. & Gallimore, R. (1988). Rousing Minds to Life: Schooling in Social Context. New
York: Cambridge University Press
• Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind In Society: The Development Of Higher Psychological Processes.
Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
• Wertsch, J. V. (1991). Voices of the Mind: A sociocultural approach to mediated action.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.