Lev Vygotsky, a stud of biblical proportions

Several weeks ago we discussed the theories of a gentleman named Lev Vygotsky. I was so intrigued by him, I decided to check him. He was born in 1896 and lived to the not so ripe-old-age of 38, dying of tuberculosis. When he attended the University of Moscow he read all the latest thinking in the fields of linguistics, sociology, psychology, philosophy and the arts. In 1924 he started a systematic inquiry into psychology launching investigations into developmental psychology, pedagogy and psychopathology. His most famous work, Thought and Language promoted a theory for language development and logical thinking in children. The theories in his book looked at the course of children's interactions with adults and the world around them. It considered how school-age children developed conceptually and theoretically as their experiential knowledge came into contact with the socially transmitted knowledge of the teacher.

When teaching materials and concepts fall outside the
"Zone of Proximal Development" no learning can occur

So, it's not to surprising to find out he developed a theory called "The Zone of Proximal Development". It states that a range of a skill can be developed with adult or peer collaboration beyond what can be attained alone. This means an instructor needs to provide the learners with material that is outside or beyond their current understanding and capabilities. As part of his theory of transmission, he believes that scientific or schooled concepts are learned "downward" through written symbols to examples, but spontaneous concepts are learned "upward" from sensory experiences to generalization. He believed pedagogy should interface spontaneous and schooled concepts to ensure the highest learning.

This ZPD means an instructor MUST know the cognitive range of development with each of her students in order to be most effective. Naturally, in the beginning of a class, the teacher won't know each student's level, but by utilizing a frequent formative evaluation the teacher should know quickly enough who's advanced and who's behind in the group. This social constructivist approach to learning was picked up by the West in the 60's and continues to be a substantial practice among instructors today. In fact, I'll even go so far as to say it was practiced by none other than Dr. John Monson in edpsych 6430, Fall 2007. Very effectively, I would add! Thanks, Dr. Monson (Dr. John).

Backwards Design Moves Forward

One of the presentations in class concerned how to implement backward design when creating a curriculum. The concept is to start the design process with the end in mind or as Stephen R. Covey puts it in his book, The Seven Habit of Highly Effective People, "To begin with the end in mind means to start with a clear understanding of your destination. It means to know where you're going so that you better understand where you are now so that the steps you take are always in the right direction." I've heard a similar concept discussed when people talk about how to consider the type of life you should live. They say that by thinking about what you want said on your tombstone or obit, you can determine the types of actions you can take today.
Doing some reading beyond class, I discovered there are three questions that need to be asked in a backwards design: 1. What is worthy and requiring of understanding? 2. What is evidence of that understanding? and 3. What learning experiences and teaching promote understanding, interest and excellence in the subject?
So the first step is to focus on the learning goals. These are the "enduring understandings" teachers use to form the first questions in backward design. These are the "big picture" questions that consider concepts and principles. They should move beyond the walls of the school into real life and typically engage the "doing" of the subject. These type of understandings engage the students.
In order for learners to express their understanding and for instructors to recognize the understanding, the learners should be able to explain, interpret, apply, empathize, and have perspective and self-knowledge. This second step is where b.d. is different from traditional design. Instead of thinking of questions for the test or quiz, b.d. asks how will I know when they understand? - when they can explain, interpret, apply, etc. It's much less important what questions are being asked than whether the content being taught is understood. Because the emphasis is on understanding, instructors can focus on the different levels of understanding instead of correct or incorrect answers.
Finally, in the third stage, instructors design lessons and experiences that help learners gain understanding through inquiry, arguments, applications and points of view that lay beneath the facts and opinions concerning the subject. These learning experiences should require students to theorize, interpret, use or see from a perspective regarding what they are asked to learn. This process is an inquiry-based approach and provides what I believe are "opportunities for discovery" for the learner.
This is such an amazing way of constructing a class, I think I'm going to try it on the basic photography curriculum for next semester.

(concepts and some language come from Understanding by Design, Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe, 2001, Prentice Hall Inc)

Will Kindle start a fire?

It was announced in Newsweek last week (Nov. 26. '07) that Jeff Bezos and Amazon are about to release a new digital reader called the Kindle. At about 5x7 inches, it's similar in size to a paperback book. Bezos says the reader was designed to project the aura of "bookishness" and won't carry a lot of fancy gizmos. With strong financial backing and the support of publishers, 88,000 titles are currently available.
I guess the big question is, will it catch on? There have been Readers in the past, but their acceptance was very limited. It seems the problem is to create a product that has a strong relationship to the thing it's replacing, but also unique enough to make people feel the additional features are a reason to give up their old product.
This seems to apply to this new reader. If it can't deliver the ability to engage readers to the point of forgetting their surroundings like a book can do AND provide some convenience features, then it will probably fail. According to the author's account, he found reading the Kindle was as easy and enjoyable as reading a physical book. He also liked how easy it was to order a book online from Amazon using a cell phone's wireless signal. When it came putting newspaper content on the Kindle the interface was a bit more cumbersome, but getting the New York Times online for $13.99 instead of $50+ was a great benefit.
At $399, the author acknowledges the price is a bit steep, but compares it to the ipod and it's history of use and acceptance. As time goes on, he believes the features will increase and the price will go down as well.
So, will this technology get more people reading? It certainly seems to make reading more convenient and titles more accessible. It also can allow a reader to compare an article of say an event to newspaper clippings from that period thus allowing for divergent takes on history. This type of accessibility might even mean more learning could take place because it could be done in a much shorter time frame. Maybe that debate about media and its effects on learning could be settled once and for all by the Kindle.

Transparent technology

The big thing these days seems to be electronic innovation with new and ever more useful "technical objects". The coolest addition to the panoply of gadgets is the iphone. It has an amazing interface and its method of operation is incredible. When a technical object functions that well it's easy to say, "Well, of course that's how it should be done. It's just so obvious!" Apparently not so obvious, since it took a lot of years to get a cell phone to that level of functionality. Yet, repair is the one thing where most of these objects fail miserably. In the old days, if you broke your plow, the damage could be observed and the fix could be made with a quick walk to the barn - as long as you had the right materials and tools needed for the repair. And any good farmer worth his salt did. Today, the cell phone, ipod, computer, DVD player and other devices are sent away for a specialist to work on. His materials, tools and knowledge are not had by many who own a modern technical object. It just seems that the technical transparency for repairs of almost any appliance or electronic device is a missing part of these objects. Maybe, that's because it's cheaper to throw it away than fix it. Still, for the expensive items it would be nice if they had some type of self-diagnostic screen that would tell the user its current state, problem or module in question. This would allow the user to make an educated guess about repairing or discarding the object rather than taking it to a repair center and waiting a week for an estimate. The repair part would be a block or module that simply replaces the faulty part. Designers could make the parts likely to fail the ones that can easily be replaced. This problem shows up on the mega-million ipods that have worn out batteries or bad hard drives. They should be designed for repair by consumers not just specialists.

While reading about the three types of learning theories, i.e. behavioral, cognitive and constructive or social learning, I found a definition of cognitive theory that said individuals are actively involved in their own learning process. I thought, sure, but only if they're paying attention. The very next page then listed six factors that influence learning: Size, intensity, novelty, incongruity, emotion and personal significance. I had shown an image to my photo class last week and instantly recalled that photo which is to the left. It's a photo taken around 1899 with a camera designed and built by George Lawrence, a photographer hired by the Chicago and Alton Railroad to get a photo of their newly completed train, the Alton Limited. The aspects of the camera, e.g. size, weight, appearance and contrast in size to humans oddly applies to the first four criteria for attention found in the cognitive theory. The railroad company must have had a similar idea to this theory because they publicized this photo and camera as the world's largest and it created quite a public sensation. When the image was shown at the Paris Exhibition in 1900, the French were so dubious of the claim they sent an envoy from New York City to Chicago to verify the existence of such a camera that used a photographic plate three times larger than anything they had ever seen before (the plate and holder weighed 500 pounds).
This makes me wonder, can the learning process or even a class be as engaging (in terms of capturing attention) to students as Lawrence's mammoth camera was to the public at the turn of the century. In a classroom setting, maybe size could relate to the scope of material covered and intensity could be how focused or even interrelated the subject is to other disciplines. Novelty and incongruity seem to work together. Odd issues could be found within the subject, utilizing a kind of "Ripley's Believe it or Not" approach. Finally, applying a "What would you do?" situation to concepts could show how the class material pops up in real life situations. I guess if these things don't get engage a student, an instructor could fake a "seizure" to get their attention. Now, that would be novel!








The Alton Limited

Posers and Knowers

This last semester of graduate school gives me a break from communication theory and gives me a chance to finally put some meat on those theoretical bones. To facilitate this, I'm taking a course in Instructional Design and Educational Technology. The first class reviewed various foundational definitions and we discussed quotes from various who-bodies (people of who's who in the field) about the different ways an instructor might perceive (see?) students. The photo on the left reminds me there are multiple ways of understanding what we see. Is this dog frightened and hiding from an unseen threat or burrowing in search of prey? I think part of the answer lies in knowing the type of dog. If it's a Jack Russell Terrier, then I would say the dog is not only burrowing, but has chased some small quivering animal into a hole in the ground. My son owns a Jack Russell Terrier that he calls "Mini". Because of the dog's intense, and I mean INTENSE nature, I call her "Mini the Muscle". If there was a canine La Cosa Nostra, Mini would be the "Family" boss.

Relating this to education and students, I often find it initially difficult to know when students are really (as in the reality of) learning. They can be looking directly at me and even nodding their heads at the appropriate times, but I have discovered by their post-discussion questions they weren't engaged in the learning process. As the semester progresses, I can start to tell the "posers" from the "knowers" and distinguish the difference. Knowing these "burrowers" from the "hiders" helps direct my interactions with them. It also help me maintain patience when I realize not all learners look the same.