ACTIVITY THEORY AS A RESEARCH FRAMEWORK FOR EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY

Activity theory can be used as a framework for analyzing any human activity mediated by an artifact, including learning activities mediated by educational technologies. However, the authors who proposed the theory have not presented methods or procedures for its application, so each research has to structure yours own way of using it. 'lb contribute to this problem, the objective of this work was to identify and analyze how the theory is applied in works in the field of educational technology and propose suggestions of procedures to be used in future researches. A bibliomemic research followed by a qualitative analysis of works in this area was used as research strategy. The results indicate that the activity theory is already applied in the field of educational technology as an analysis tool. The advantages of its application consist in providing a holistic view of the social and complex context in which technologies are inserted, as well as the identification of the interrelationships and contradictions between the various actors (subjects and community) and the other elements of the activity (mediating artefacts, division of labor and rules and customs). Although the theory originally proposed does not present a standardized protocol of how the framework should be applied, the qualitative analysis was able to identify in the analyzed works a general common line of its use. This general line was synthesized in the form of an application model of the activity theory framework presented at the end of this article.