The introduction of a professional tools impacts practices in many ways. In fact, the use of a tool involves specific procedures and triggers particular “professional visions” (Goodwin, 1994). One of the dimensions impacted by technology is the management of the space-time configurations of an ongoing activity. In this research we analyse this dimension in a group of teachers while planning activity for their classroom involving the use of a software suite.
We start from a socio-constructive point of view. In fact, according to this approach, it can be affirmed that people interactively construct the realities in which they live, developing symbolic, sense-filled "possible worlds" while they act in their physical, social and cultural environment (Bruner, 1986). Part of this continuous construction process takes place when people negotiate the contexts in and with which they interact while participating in various activities. The development of the context is in fact “shaped by the activities of the moment” (Duranti & Goodwin, 1992), in line with the objectives that people have set themselves and the activities they are involved in. The spaces for interaction and the times for the activity are negotiated in a coordinated way. In short, the co-construction process also incorporates the space-time dimension (Holland, Hutchins & Kirsh, 2000, Kirsh, 2005) and is inevitably sensitive to the characteristics of the historical and cultural context as well as the participants’ skills, intentions, expectations and ways of interacting (Cole & Engeström, 1983). In our opinion, these dimensions have not been sufficiently investigated in the context of computer-mediated interactions. Thus our research question inquires the impact on the spatiotemporal aspects of situated activity systems. In particular we look at an activity system composed of a group of teachers planning educational activities with and for the introduction of a new software program.
Six training sessions in which 10 teachers first familiarised themselves with an innovative software suite called CoFFEE were analysed and later they developed a careers guidance educational scenario. All the sessions were filmed and each session was also supplemented by the collection of field notes written by the researcher through participant observation.