learning - Academic Conferences Limited

Nabil Ben Abdallah and Françoise Poyet
itself are mediated by a certain form of division of labor. The whole system provides a set of dynamic
relations which adjust themselves and adapt continuously to maintain a certain productive stability
(transformation of the object into outcome).
Figure 1: Structure of a system of human activities (Engeström1987)
The principles commonly described of the activity theory are: object orientation, mediation, the
hierarchical structure of activity, internalization/externalization, and development. According to the
principle object orientation of the activity theory, all the human activities are directed towards objects.
They make it possible to transform an object considered as "a raw material'' to a significant object
which is potentially shared by various system activities. These interactions with the object are,
according to the principle of mediation, inevitably mediated by material or intellectual tools. These
tools are able to adapt to environments composed of other tools and / or other human actors. The
principle of the hierarchical structure of activity is one of the principal contributions of Leontiev
(Leontiev 1981), it supposes the existence of three hierarchical levels of activities to carry out a given
task: activities in close relation with the motivations and intentions, actions subordinate and related to
specific goals, and operations determined by the real conditions of the activity. For Leontiev the
human activity exists only in the form of an action or a chain of actions. The principle of
internalization/externalization informs us about our mental processes which are the consequences of
our internalized external activities. These processes are connected to their social and cultural
environment. Lastly, the principle of development requires that the human activity is analyzed in the
context of development. It is a question of understanding how an activity develops, in the course of
time, in an historical and cultural context, and how the actions undertaken on the object of the activity
affect such a development. According to Kaptelinin and Bonnie (Kaptelinin 2006, p.72): "principles of
activity theory should be considered as an integrated system because they are associated with
various aspects of the whole activity. That is, systematic application of any of the principles makes it
eventually necessary to engage all the others".
The activity theory is currently used in various studies related directly or indirectly to human activity. In
the field, for instance, the human-computer interaction, activity theory is used as a relevant theoretical
framework for the design and analysis of computer systems by focusing on the objective, constraints
and specificities of the human activity (Engeström 2010; Larry 2009; Kaptelinin 2006; Mwanza 2002;
Kuutti 1996; Nardi 1996).
From the definition of an activity system and principles of activity theory described above, we try to
sketch the outlines of an approach that allows us to conduct a comprehensive evaluation connecting
both practical acceptability (utility and usability) is the social acceptability of a VLE.
5. Towards a comprehensive evaluation of VLE
In the activity theory, the principle of mediation is a key principle to understand the system of activities
in its globality. It informs us about the mediating role of the Tool that essentially mediates subject-
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