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.