Lev Vygotski Learning is best with friends 1896

Lev Vygotski Learning is best with friends 1896 – 1934 was a Russian psychologist The language and culture plays a central role in the process of "making meaning. "

Learning • It is a socially mediated activity: This drives the learning • It requires an involved teacher as an active participant and guide. • Collaborative process. • Cognitive development results from a dialectical process whereby a child learns through problem-solving experiences shared with someone else, usually a parent or teacher but sometimes a sibling or peer. • Learning must be in a meaningful context (keep it real)

Instruction • Social and cultural function • Cooperative learning • Adults such as parents and teachers are conduits for the tools of the culture, including language. • Initially, the person interacting with child assumes most of the responsibility for guiding the problem solving, but gradually this responsibility transfers to the child.

Assessment • Assessment methods must take into account the zone of proximal development. What children can do on their own is their level of actual development and what they can do with help is their level of potential development. Two children might have the same level of actual development, but given the appropriate help from an adult, one might be able to solve many more problems than the other. • Assessment methods must target both the level of actual development and the level of potential development. • In the end, can the child solve a problem beyond their actual development

Technology • Technology is the key today to achieve potential development • Connectivism • Internet • Social networking • Blog sites • Fanfiction: intense networked cultural context • Glogster