ecting agents and artifacts in CSCL : Towards 5 a rationale of mutual shaping 6 Maarten

10 11 Abstract Studying how collaborative activity takes shape interactionally in the con12 text of technological settings is one of the main challenges in the field of Computer13 Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL). It requires us, amongst other things, to 14 look into the ‘black box’ of how technical artifacts are brought into use, or rather, 15 how they are attuned to, interacted with, and shaped in various and varied practices. 16 This article explores the establishment of a purposeful connection of human agents 17 and technical artifacts in CSCL, that we call ‘the agent-artifact connection’. In order 18 to contribute to a grounded conception of this connection, we reviewed three 19 theoretical positions: affordance, structures and instrument. Although these three 20 positions differ in how they conceptualise the connection, they share the assumption 21 that a technical artifact carries a potential for action that becomes available when 22 artifact and agent connect, and that the availability of action opportunities is relative 23 to the ones who interact with the artifact. In this article, we map out the conceptual 24 and methodological implications for each of the positions. We argue that the rationale 25 of ‘shaping’ collaborative interactions that underlies a part of CSCL research should 26 be replaced by a rationale of ‘mutual shaping’ of human agents and technical 27 artifacts.