Building+Pictures+about+Contexts

Link to **[|FlickR]** Add image of Activity Theory Design process

=Activity Based Design= Activity Based Design focuses on the situation in which the materials and the technology will be used i.e. their social contexts (community rules, history, culture of the users, how the community/groups organise themselves). Here materials and technologies are socially co-constructed and mediated by human communciation and interaction. This is informed by an ecological perspective - ecology of ideas - where ideas and practices evolve within complex systems that are novel, are interrelated, and seek to sustain the delicate and necessary balance between the need for stability and the need for change. Fundamental to this activity approach is that humans develop and learn when in collaboration with others and act on their immediate surroundings. This is also central to the principles in [|complex adaptive systems].

Iterative design cycle
 ** First **, researchers and designers examine current practices and activities. Needs are identified through generalised scenario-based design techniques, interviews, and observations ** Next, ** (#ad1af9) tensions, controversies, and conflicts within and between activity systems are identified **Then** a period of search and questioning begins as new models and metaphors are considered and new solutions and design developed **After** the initial series of trials and testing of designs in actual settings, new priorities and approaches emerge **Followed** by periods of reconceptualising, revision and redesign ** Ultimately **, the entire cycle is repeated until some resolution, new stability, or closure is achieved.  **Increasing** agreement among groups is indicated by a narrowing of disagreements during each iteration, with the resulting central point represented a shared conceptualisation or closure.

The Generalisations
Urban Middle Schools Urban Primary Schools

Getting to know the picture so that the static and flexible/emerging materials developed and distributed suit teachers activities in their particular contexts.