A Multimodal Framework for Computer Mediated Learning: The Reshaping of Curriculum Knowledge and Learning

people who share a common object and purpose over time, the tools they share to act
on an object and realise that purpose (Russell, 2002).

The activity system is a flexible unit of analysis (theoretical lens),
which allows us to train our gaze in different directions and with
different levels of ‘magnification’ to help us answer the questions that
puzzle us.

(Russell, 2002: 67)

As shown in figure 2.1 activity systems have a subject engaged in activity.

Figure 2.1 An activity system (Engestrom, 1987)

In this thesis the subjects are school students and teachers, each of who is located
differently within the classroom. The object refers to the material for study or the
problem space that the students are working with and which they bring the tools to
bear on. In the example of computer mediated learning analysed in Chapter Four, for
example, the object is the construction of ‘character’ in the school English classroom.
The students (subjects) use the tools (the modal resources of the CD-ROM) to act on

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