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 Tue Apr 24 08:52 PDT 2007