Finished two more chapters of Vygotsky's Mind in Society. It is not dense - in fact the introduction was far more dense than these actual chapters. the first two chapters are all about how the use and development of language affects the development of tool and symbol use in children as well as the development of attention and perception.
In thinking about why this should be at all relevant to the work that we are doing with data - here is what I come up with:
References:
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: the development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.
In thinking about why this should be at all relevant to the work that we are doing with data - here is what I come up with:
- What language are the students using to organize their data?
- If we can discern the "words" in their language will it help us to build tools that can aid their "expression"?
- To tie back tightly to what Vygotsky says - how does the development of a "data sense" proceed in tandem with the development of a "data language"?
If we are to be a data processing environment akin to a word processor then it does seem important to know how the language works so that we can provide all the necessary tools to craft a well formatted and thought-out narrative in data.
The last thought to keep in mind as I read through more of the book is I guess where and how the does the "social" aspect fit into our conceptions of what we hope to build and learn? Is it simply that the collaborative data analysis space will contribute to learning or something more deep that arises from being in a classroom rather than by your self?
all for now...
References:
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: the development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.
