To answer the following questions in relation to the components of activity theory (subject, object, tools, rules, community and division of labor); I tried to address each of initial items to an activity theory component:
– did we come up with all the necessary components for analyzing and describing interactive systems?
– what components seem irrelevant? Why?
– currently we have a long list of components, which can be definitely shorten. How would you do that?
– do what degree the list of components is concurrent with the components of the activity theory framework?
– are there components which are not covered by the activity theory framework, but the activity theory framework could benefit from?
Initial items versus components of activity theory:
time frame – rule
schedule – tool
time management – rule
process – rule/object
methodology – tool
options – ?
interrelatedness (relations) – ?
rules – rule
control – rule
aim/goal – object
task – object
start – ?
end – ?
result – object
effect – object
feedback – object
restrictions / limitations -rule
location (located)- tool
tools- tool
trigger / event
software – tool
actors- subject
role- division of labor
participants- subject
project manager – community
sequence – rule
plan- rule
evaluation criteria- rule
resource- tool
learnability-?
model / modeling- rule
quality – object
workmanship- division of labor
They are mostly relevant to the activity theory components but I could not think of any relevant component for some of them (the ones with a question mark in front: options, interrelatedness, start, end, and learnability). All the necessary components had been mentioned in the list but some of them overlap. We can shorten the list by having some general groups for example: aim, task, result, effect, feedback, and quality are all objects that can be under object/aim group. I was not sure about categorization of some components like time frame, schedule and process which I did not know whether I should look at them as method/tool or policies/rules. In addition, there could be more instances of community and division of labor in the list such as: lecturer, task developer, and evaluator/ assessor.
Interactive Media 