[xmca] Supporting Resources for toolforthoughts

Before I'm ready to join the discussion with substantive comments, I wanted
to repost the information below, because I think it points to sources that
are very helpful in support of Shaffer & Clinton's "Toolforthoughts."

Shaffer & Clinton credit Nardi & Kaptelinin as among their sources. I think
the 2006 book probably came out after their article was submitted. I just
checked the firstmonday link that Bruce sent earlier (below), and it's still
good, with links to 3 chapters in the new book.

A special contribution of the MIT Press series with regard to the
"Toolforthoughts" idea is that it provides rich examples, e.g. the example
of toolforthoughts in the work of highway safety programs in Iowa.

-----Original Message-----
From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu] On
Behalf Of Tony Whitson
Sent: Tuesday, April 24, 2007 10:43 AM
To: BRUCE@BRUCEROB.EU; eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
Subject: Great Resource IMHO: Re: [xmca] New book "Acting with technology:AT
and interaction design"

I have read this book, which somebody else is reviewing for MCA.
I am reviewing three other books in the MIT series that's anchored by this
text. (Actually, one of my 3 was before the series started as such).
For links & comments, see "Curriculum & the post-(cognitivist) synthesis"
at
http://curricublog.org/2007/01/28/postcog-curriculum/

This book includes background & a "primer" on Activity Theory, and some
discussion of varieties of activity theory. I am one of the least
qualified people on this list to judge the adequacy of that discussion. I
can however vouch for the quality in the series in the treatment of other
traditions (semiotics, phenomenology, Bakhtinian genre theory, etc.) that
I am more familiar with. Oh, as for CHAT, they seem to have involved Mike
Cole heavily as a consulting source as they were writing.

Another feature of the series is that all of the books develop theoretical
elaborations through concrete applications in the area of HCI
(human-computer interaction). The value is not limited to people
interested in HCI, however.

On Tue, 24 Apr 2007, Bruce Robinson wrote:

> At: http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue12_4/kaptelinin/
> there is the following:
>
>
> Thanks to MIT Press, Victor Kaptelinin, and Bonnie Nardi, First Monday is
> pleased to present excerpts from Victor and Bonnie's latest book Acting
with
> Technology: Activity Theory and Interaction Design. This book describes
how
> activity theory helps us understand our relationships with technology. As
> such, it is the first book to describe the fundamentals of activity
theory.
>
> The table of contents for Acting with Technology: Activity Theory and
> Interaction Design follows with links to the Chapter 1: Introduction,
Chapter
> 9: Postcognitivist Theories in Interaction Design, and Chapter 10:
Artifacts,
> Agency, and (A)symmetry.
>
> Bruce Robinson
> _______________________________________________
> xmca mailing list
> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
>

Tony Whitson
UD School of Education
NEWARK DE 19716

twhitson@udel.edu
_______________________________

"those who fail to reread
  are obliged to read the same story everywhere"
                   -- Roland Barthes, S/Z (1970)

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Received on Fri Jun 15 11:53 PDT 2007