Activity Theory in 20 slides
by ozten on Apr 19, 2010
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[First Draft] of a presentation on Activity Theory.
[First Draft] of a presentation on Activity Theory.
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Luciana Viter
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0262513315?ie=UTF8&tag=ozten-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0262513315
I read this book on Activity Theory
Activity theory gives you an Framework and some analytical tools for thinking about Web Development in a broader perspective
Previous sentence suggest is was wize I didn’t go to Daytona Beach for spring break
Psychology and other external sources are ripe.
We tend to focus too much on code and features.
We need a theory for understanding Social and Sensors.
I think Activity Theory can be useful in guiding one's focus
It's so easy to get lost in a single tool, but 21C centruary web development is about people, sensors, and a bigger picture.
It stresses big picture thinking.
After reading this book and thinking from an Activity Theory perspective, I was left with some pretty trippy metaphysics.
Theory is easier to grok from a historical perspective.
We learn from each other. All inventions and discoveries are pregnant in society before they are internalized by the individual. Story telling like the Wright brothers inventing flight are critical to learning and communication, but aren’t accurate records of history.
Scott Berkun “The Myths of Innovation”
Photo: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:LSvygotsky.jpg
But a missing piece is to measure someone’s proficiency against material beyond their reach with the support of peers and mentors
This leads to the Constructivist educational system, Alan Kay, and Object-Oriented Programming, the Laptop, and other important things from the 70's.
Aleksei Leontiev systematically studied the evolution of the human psyche.
What is reality? What is life? In Reality there is only activity. There is only needs, motives, and a subject using objects.
Photo: http://www.comnet.ca/~pballan/AT.htm
The psudeopod may have less complexity than Susan Blackmore, but they are both “alive”.
There is no magic sauce added that makes humans “intelligent”. It’s a natural pile-on of complexity that adds more and more Agency to the Subject.
In this way, objects such as memes are as real as sea sponges.
Photos:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Velvetwormonleaf.gif
http://www.susanblackmore.co.uk/
Yrjo Engeström into this triange.
It’s like Dayona Beach... for your mind.
Engestrom stressed the context of activity. When creating web applications, we need to think broadly and look at organizational, cultural, and external technical factors.
Photo: http://design.case.edu/2002workshop/
Internal - External is along two scales.
Social (individual verses collective), Physical (internal versus external) and
Let's drill down on the concepts on the right
A subject has many goals, some conflicting
An activity may serve many goals
Tasks may have sub-tasks
A task may have many operations
Operations are tiny, insignificant automatic actions such as creating a new text file. Or “liking” something, etc.
Activity does not exist without Objects
Example using the Firefox web browser’s AwesomeBar feature:
Construction - Initially conceptualized, imagined, discussed, and then realized
Instantiation - Now routinely used when you type in the address bar
Linking - often referenced when constructing new Firefox Objects - “Imagine a feature like the Awesome Bar, but for your Address Book Contacts”
Internalization is learning and improves efficiency
Add-ons are real. No I mean really real!
Jyri Engstrom, son of Yrjo Engstrom and creater of Jaiku talks about SocialObjects and why Linkedin has weak objects. A social graph alone is pointless.
Activity Theory is not a black and white set of rules, but a framework for understanding.
Empirical research is embedded in Activity.
Wood is softer than my axe. Marble is harder than my axe. Axe - a tool with thousands of years of understanding encoded into it’s physical shape and cultural meaning.
In a literal sense, your text editor is part of you.
Although empirical research is “objective” it’s still relative to objects which are themselves subject to development, are only used because they motivate us. Which parts of reality are we blind to, because they are of no use to us?
Language and tools are the crystallization of activity.
All life is just activity
Use the AT triange to broaden your mental landscape when hacking the web.