In late September I will be attending a workshop on Activity Theory in the Age of Social Media. It will be a good opportunity to reengage with some of the ideas in activity theory and connect these to my current work.
During my PhD research (10 years ago) I used activity theory to examine how mobile technologies were appropriated to fit in to people's learning and work activities. Activity theory proved to be a useful framework that provided a connection between the four case studies I conducted and enabled me to examine the sociocultural contexts that shaped - and were shaped by - the introduction of new mobile technologies in each setting. Since then my research has examined social technologies in diverse settings, including higher education and aged care. While I haven't had the opportunity to draw on activity theory for much of this work, it provides a useful way of explaining some of the disruptions - or contradictions - that often occur when social technologies are introduced into these formal settings.
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I love this example of a tangible and natural user interface... My colleague, Hilary Davis, and I will be giving a presentation about our work for the IBES-funded project "Making the Invisible Visible: Digital Storytelling for Neighbourhood Social Cohesion" on Friday 15th August. Details below: Housebound residents and digital storytelling: Enhancing community inclusion with an interactive public display Disability, age, and mental health issues can confine people to their homes, leaving them with few opportunities to participate in local community activities. In this project we are exploring new ways of leveraging technologies to enable housebound people to engage with the community by creating and sharing digital stories about their lives. To better understand the experiences of housebound people and to explore how they have used technology to share their stories with others, we have analysed YouTube and Vimeo videos created by housebound people. In this seminar we present key themes from this analysis and outline future stages of the project, which will involve co-creating digital stories with housebound residents in a Melbourne suburb and sharing their stories with a local audience via a community-placed public display. Working in collaboration with the IBES Lab, the project has developed a prototype interactive display that will be used to share participants’ digital stories. In this seminar we will demonstrate the prototype and invite audience feedback. Where: Interaction Design Lab, 9th Floor, Doug McDonell Building, University of Melbourne
When: Friday 15th August, 3 - 4 pm. |
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Dr Jenny Waycott, Associate Professor, School of Computing & Information Systems, The University of Melbourne
Contact: jwaycott @ unimelb.edu.au Twitter: @jlwaycott |