ABSTRACT
Activity theory is a social psychological framework that grew out of two theoretical pillars of Soviet psychological thought in the 1920s and 1930s: Vygotskian cultural-historical psychology and praxis-focused Marxist materialism. Activity theory, also sometimes called Cultural Historical Activity Theory (or CHAT) seeks to create an account of human cognition in which people, their intentions, tools, culture, and encompassing social structures are all considered as inherently inseparable components of human activity which constitute thought. Within educational technology and the learning sciences, hereafter referred to as the “learning technologies,” CHAT is used in many ways. Most often, learning technologists have used third-generation CHAT (identified with the Scandanavian school) as a guiding theoretical framework to understand how technologies are adopted, adapted, and configured through use in complex social situations.
