A Review of Activity Theory Studies of Domestic and International Students Using Technology in Higher Education

Abstract

This chapter serves as an introduction to the two studies featured in Section 2 (Chapters 7-10). It presents a review of a decade (2002-2012) of nine Activity Theory studies from peer-reviewed journals of higher education students’ learning in technology-mediated contexts. The review is organized around the following elements: purpose; rationale for Activity Theory use; summary of technology use; focus on technology-mediated learning; data collection; data analysis; findings, conclusions, and implications. The methods section provides an overview of why the nine studies were included while others were excluded. The chapter includes a comparison of the nine studies with those presented in Section 2, Chapters 7-10.