Landing : Athabascau University

Activity Theory in Distance Education: Revision

Resources for Further Study

The following is a list of resources that might be of help for anyone who wants to learn more about Activity Theory or the zone of proximal development in a distance and mobile education context.  These resources were compiled while working on an assignment for EDDE 803.

Activity Theory

Atwell, G. (2009, December 21).  Vygotsky, Activity Theory and the use of tools for formal and informal learning.  [Web log comment].  Retrieved from http://www.pontydysgu.org/2009/12/vygotsky-activity-theory-and-the-use-of-tools-for-formal-and-informal-learning/

Ballantyne, P. (2004).  Leontiev’s activity theory approach to psychology: Activity as the “molar unit of life” and his “levels of psyche.”  Retrieved from http://www.igs.net/~pballan/AT.htm

Chaiklin, S. (2003).  The zone of proximal development in Vygotsky’s analysis of learning and instruction.  Retrieved from http://people.ucsc.edu/~gwells/Files/Courses_Folder/documents/chaiklin.zpd.pdf

Edwards, A. (2011). Cultural historical activity theory: British Educational Research Association online resource.  Retrieved from http://www.bera.ac.uk/resources/cultural-historical-activity-theory-chat

Engström, Y. (1997). Learning by expanding: An activity-theoretical approach to developmental research.  Retrieved from http://lchc.ucsd.edu/MCA/Paper/Engestrom/expanding/toc.htm

Impedovo M. A. (2011). Mobile learning and Activity Theory.Journal of e-Learning and Knowledge Society, English Edition, 7(2), 103-109.  Retrieved from http://je-lks.maieutiche.economia.unitn.it/index.php/Je-LKS_EN/article/viewFile/525/530

Kaptelinin, V. & Nardi, B. (2006). Acting with technology: Activity theory and interaction design. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Kaptelinin, V. & Nardi, B. (2007). Activity Theory: Basic concepts and applications.  Retrieved from http://www.sigchi.org/chi97/proceedings/tutorial/bn.htm

Koole, M. L., (2009). A model for framing mobile learning. In M. Ally (Ed.), Mobile learning: Transforming the delivery of education and training, 25-47. Edmonton, AB: AU Press. Retrieved from http://www.aupress.ca/index.php/books/120155

Kuutti, K. (1995).  Activity Theory as a potential framework for human computer interaction research.  In B. Nardi (Ed.), Context and consciousness: Activity Theory and human computer interaction (pp. 17-44).  Cambridge: MIT Press.

Murphy, E. & Rodriguez-Manzanares, M. (2007).  An Activity Theory perspective on e-teaching in a virtual high school classroom.  Proceedings of the 10th IASTED international conference: Computers and advanced technology in education, 121-126.

Russell, D. (2001).  Looking beyond the interface: Activity theory and distributed learning.  In Lea, M. (Ed.), Understanding distributed learning, 64-82.  London: Routledge.

Sannino, A., Daniels, H. & Gutierrez, K. (2009). Learning and expanding with Activity Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.   Retrieved from http://www.numerons.in/files/documents/10Learning-and-Expanding-with-Activity-Theory.pdf

Sharples, M., Taylor, J. & Vavoula, G. (2005).  Towards a theory of mobile learning.  Paper presented at the 4th Annual World Conference on Mobile and Contextual Learning (mLearn 2005), Cape Town, South Africa.  Retrieved from http://www.mlearn.org/mlearn2005/CD/papers/Sharples-%20Theory%20of%20Mobile.pdf

Wikipedia (2012, November 12).  Activity theory.  Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activity_theory

Wilson, T. (2012). Web links on Activity Theory.  Retrieved from http://informationr.net/ir/ATLinks.html