## 1 Introduction
There are very few studies of the potential for teachers and their students to harvest the tools, to explore and learn via geovisual educational material. This ought to be the focus of further investigation. Looking at research on learning with multi-representational software in general, where the focus often has been to find out if multiple-representational technology is effective as learning environments, research has indicated that Web supported teaching and learning can provide access to a rich and varied amount of information sources as well as freedom for students to search for, select and organize information [10]. However, the studies also indicate that assessing the credibility and authority of information sources in Web environments can cause serious problems for students. Learners can find such environments overwhelming to the extent that students may even risk becoming \"losers\" through the Web [11, 12]. It is common that there is neither time nor energy to transform the digital information flow into meaning in school activities. Mostly the students are left with their information from the seeking sequence without help or questioning discussions [13, 14]. Evidence exists that in the worst cases such environments are not just neutral but can even harm learning [15, 16, 17, 18, 19]. Consequently, it is increasingly important to develop formal learning contexts, including technology, so the possibilities for a growing ability to access, evaluate, organize and use information in order to learn, problem-solve, and make decisions are offered. Again, Geovisual Analytics can be a useful alternative for students and give valuable contributions to their learning, but in order to obtain knowledge on the constructed learning processes, research questions have to be formulated. The questions ought, according to the discussion, to change from the simplistic \"is multiple-representational technology an effective learning environment\" to \"Under what circumstances, with which design factors, for which learners, performing which tasks and expecting what outcomes, are such tools efficient\". To be able to answer that kind of questions the theoretical perspectives; design and methods have to be considered most critical. Therefore, to conduct a study of learning with Geovisual Analytics, which are more than neutral tools enabling transmission of messages or providing access to information, our understanding of the activities in the learning process needs to be founded on a well-formulated perspective on the nature of learning with technical artifacts. As an example of the implications from the theoretical perspective accentuated in this paper, a study conducted within the socio cultural tradition is presented. The focus in the study was young students' use and learning processes when employing The Open Statistics eXplorer-platform--a Geovisual Analytics (Figure 1). Children employed this application and its interactive multiple external representations (MERs) in their school activities--in their process of learning. The Open Statistics eXplorer platform includes a collection of innovative geographic and information visualizations adapted to statistics data handling for geovisual analysis, collaboration and publication processes [20]. To summarize, the paper begins by scrutinizing its purpose and aim. Next, the paper clarifies the most common learning theories applied when studying learning in such environments. It discusses the socio-cultural theoretical perspective on learning, advocating the latter to be applied for studying the complexity of learning when using these kinds of environments. The paper elucidates the implications a socio-cultural perspective can have upon the research design and methods. To contrast this, the paper gives an example of a study which focuses on students' learning activities and their knowledge construction, when they are employing a Geovisual Analytics-the Open Statistics eXplorer platform. Finally some conclusions are drawn.