Abstract :
This paper uses a third-generation Activity Theory perspective to gain insight
into the contradictions between the activity systems of the physical and virtual
high school classroom from the perspective of teachers who had transitioned
from one system to the other. Data collection relied on semi-structured interviews
conducted with e-teachers as well as management/support personnel of
an organisation charged with delivering web-based high school courses in the
Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Contradictions related to
time and workload, physical presence, interaction and rapport building, and
use of direct messaging and email. The contradictions can be explained by a
difference between the mediating tools in each activity system. The absence in
the virtual classroom of body language and visual presence as mediators
requires e-teachers to find new ways of interacting and building rapport and
necessitates a shift from a practice of controlling to engaging students’
attention.
