In this paper, we re-visit different theoretical and conceptual issues that havebeen influencing the design of educational technology artifacts. In particular, we take intoconsideration recent perspectives in cognitive science that acknowledge the importanteffects of external representations in learning and discuss the challenges regarding theapplicability of these ideas in connection to seamless learning environments. Extending theprevious work revised here, the current paper suggests that in order to further understandthe nature of learning in these novel contexts, research needs to investigate howsocio-affective factors come to the fore and influence the co-construction and use ofexternal representations “in the wild”.