Abstraction Clusters to Understand Digital Development: Introducing the SETA Model

This book investigates the interface between the epistemological field of education, human development, and digital technologies. Grounded on complexity, actor-network theory, action ecology, and hybridism, the central hypothesis is that an excessively technical conception about the mentioned interface can disadvantage the debate on educational technologies, treating them only as a tool or a means to an end. Through the proposition of ten theoretical categories for understanding digital applications, this work considers that digital technologies expand human skills horizons. Three abstraction clusters (instrument, power, and actant network) derive from the ten categories and compose the SETA model, an evaluative framework to understand educational technologies and possible applications.