Abstract
The perspective of self-directed and self-regulated learning as a generalized skill discounts the fact that a major driver of self-direction is an individual's motives centered on communities of practice. Effective design of learning experiences that foster agency, self-direction, and curiosity requires a clearer understanding of this relationship. Activity theory provides a helpful model for explaining the internal and external interactions of learning, both individually and within a community. Without this perspective, educators too often blame learners as failing to have self-regulation when in reality these learners are working under a different set of goals, roles, rules, or tools than those of the learning designer. Using this framework, this theoretical overview will demonstrate ways an immersive adult technology training academy helps support novices striving to enter technology-related careers, as they develop the identity, skills, and self-regulation of coding, data, and design professions.