Literacy: Hindsight, Insight and Foresight

John Cook

October 2012

1. Learning outcomes2. Introduction to BRILLE & D4DL research

theme3. Hindsight perspective, with initial questions

and Vygotskian perspective4. Insight: Augmented Contexts for Development5. Foresight: Future research could revolve

around the following issues and questions

Structure

By the end of this session participants will:- Have been exposed to the notion that ‘Literacy‘ and fact

that this is a contested area with calls for a radical reappraisal of the phenomenon of "literacy".

- Be aware of the Vygotskian view of technology as a tool like language that can mediate learning in a ZPD.

- Have considered a more contemporary view that takes a critical account of "literacy“ by examining research in mobile learning that looks at Augmented Contexts for Development (research at UWE/BRILLE)

- Have considered and discussed how future research could revolve around several issues and questions

1. Learning outcomes

2. Bristol Centre for Research in Lifelong Learning and Education (BRILLE)

University of the West of England (UWE)http://www1.uwe.ac.uk/cahe/edu/research/researchcentre-brille.aspx

• Based in North Bristol, West England, UK• Originating in a Lifelong Learning Research Group formed in 2002• Based in the Department of Education • BRILLE conducts theoretical through to applied research• Major research theme is Designing for Digital Learners (D4DL)

• http://cloudworks.ac.uk/cloudscape/view/2435 • Current projects include:

• FP7 BrEaking New Ground IN the SciencE Education Realm. (ENGINEER) • Previous projects include:

• FP7 MATURE IP• Leonardo da Vinci programme DISCO I&II the European Dictionary of Skills and

Competencies

People

• John Cook– http

://westengland.academia.edu/JohnCook/About

– Professor in Education– 20 years in TEL research, specialises mobile

learning and social media

3. Hindsight perspective

• Interested in research that develops a theoretical dialogue between ‘literacies’ and technology enhanced learning

• In particular cognitive psychology and education

• Work of Vygotsky• Before the above I paint a broad brush

picture of the landscape.

Digitally literate learners

Kress (2003) has observed that young people use new forms of communication which appear to include layers of meaning not accessible by ‘traditional’ language skills alone.

Digitally literate learners

“… include the ability to understand the power of images and sounds, to recognize and use that power, to manipulate and transform digital media, to distribute them pervasively, and to easily adapt them to new forms.” (New Media Consortium, 2005, p. 2, original was in italics)

Children’s bedrooms become media labs

UK children aged 12-15 have an average of six media devices in their bedrooms and children aged 8-11 have an average of four such devices (Ofcom 2008, p. 6).

BUT we are seeing fragmentation of ‘literacy’ abilities

• The results of PISA on reading competence suggest a fragmenting of literacy performace in terms of social cohesion.

• Except for in a few countries, for example in Finland, around 18% of 15 year old students tend to be unable to read texts (OECD, 2004, p. 5).

• This in the sense of comprehension: finding information in a paragraph, interpreting the information and reflecting on or evaluating it.

The Google Generation provide a warning here

“…young people demonstrate an ease and familiarity with computers, they rely on the most basic search tools and do not possess the critical and analytical skills to assess the information that they find on the web.”

JISC and British Library (2008)

Web 2.0 and learning?

“… only a few embryonic signs of criticality, self-management and meta-cognitive reflection … There is a disparity between home and school use of IT …)Becta (2008).

Initial Questions

• How can we reconceptualise the ways in which learning spaces are designed?

• How can we conduct research into digital literacy and Technology Enhanced Learning when these momentous changes are largely taking place out there ‘in the wild’?

• LMLG (Pachler, Bachmair and Cook, in press) argue that the context for learning in the 21st Century has brought about the need to re-conceptualize or extend theories from the past if we are to develop an approach to deep learning design for the present and the future.

Augmented Contexts for Development (Cook, 2010)

• I argue that – the nature of learning and meaning making is being

augmented by new digital tools and media, particularly by mobile devices and the networks and structures to which they connect people;

– our understanding of how to design for these new contexts for development & learning can benefit from a re-conceptualisation of Vygotskys work;

– the above leads to notion of Augmented Contexts for Development.

Back to the future(this will be quick and painless )

www.ukzn.ac.za/cae/pfi/sqd/lev.htm

• The “higher psychological processes”, as Vygotsky termed them, result from a relation “between human beings and their environment, both physical and social” ((Vygotsky 1978/1930, p. 19).

• Vygotsky considered “social interactions” to be those like ‘to speak’ as the transformation of practical activities such as ‘to use a tool’.

• The leading processes are that of internalization and that of the instrumental use of a tool.

• This happens where “An operation that initially represents an external activity is reconstructed and begins to occur internally” (Vygotsky 1978/1930, p 56).

• Further, the social situation of the external activity, like the conditions for the use of tools, is internalized: – “An interpersonal process is transformed into

an intrapersonal one” (Vygotsky 1978/1930, p 57).

• “The transformation of an interpersonal process into an intrapersonal one is the result of a long series of developmental events” (Vygotsky 1978/1930, p 57).

Vygotsky proposed the Zone of Proximal Development

“It is the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by

independent problem solving and the level of potential problem solving as determined

through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more

capable peers.” (Vygotsky, 1978/1930, p. 86, my bold)

• Vygotsky (1978/1930, p. 90) proposed “that an essential feature of learning is that it creates the zone of proximal development; that is, learning awakens a variety of internal developmental processes that are able to operate only when the child is [in] interaction with people in his environment and in cooperation with his peers. Once these processes are internalized, they become part of the child’s independent developmental achievement.”

4. Insight:Augmented Contexts for

Development (2010)

Temporal underpinning of Augmented Contexts for Development is fundamental

“Attention should be given first place among the major functions in the psychological structure underlying the use of tools … the child is able to determine for herself the “centre of gravity” of her perceptual field; her behaviour is not regulated solely by the salience of individual elements with it … In addition to reorganizing the visual-spatial field, the child, with the help of speech, creates a time field that is just as perceptible and real to him as the visual one. The speaking child has the ability to direct his attention in a dynamic way. He can view changes in his immediate situation from the point of view of activities, and he can act in the present from the viewpoint of the future.”

(Vygotsky, 1978/1930, p. 35-36, original italics, my bold.)

mScape @ Cistercian abbey

Elements of Augmented Context for Development

• The physical environment (Cistercian abbey).• Pedagogical plan.• Tool: Visualisation/augmentation oriented approach

creates umbrella ‘Augmented Context for Development’ for location based mobile devices (acts as substitute for ‘more capable peer’)

• Co-constructed ‘temporal context for development,’ created within wider Augmented Context for Development through– Interpersonal interactions using tools (e.g. language, mobiles

etc) and signs– Intrapersonal representations of the above functions

Qualitative analysis: process and explanatory perspective, looking at the inner features of the

situation (Cook, 2010)

Screen shot of Carl Smith’s wire-frame movie reconstruction of Nine Alters (http://cistercians.shef.ac.uk/)

Students interacting @ Cistercian Chapel in CONTSENS

Augmented Contexts for Development (Cook, 2010)

• Visualisation/augmentation oriented approach. • Wider Augmented Context for Development

substitutes for ‘more capable peer’.• Inside this wider Augmented Context:

– learners are supported as they co-create ‘temporal contexts for development’

– where the time field of attention becomes detached from the perceptual field and unfolds itself in time.

• Thus augmenting development and learning.

5. Foresight:Future research could revolve around the following

issues and questions (from Becta report)

• The demands on teachers’ time of innovating in this area should not be understated, particularly if a more bottom-up mode of dissemination is to be pursued. Periods of brief sabbatical leave could be considered for those who wish to take leads in Web 2.0 innovation

• Web 2.0 is not exclusively confined to interactions with PC monitors. Attention should be directed at the development of versatile and learner-friendly mobile devices. If synchronised with network services, these offer a valuable opening to extend Web 2.0 pedagogy.

• The tension between Web 2.0 modes of teaching and learning and the traditional structure of educational practice needs to be confronted. This applies in particular to the tension between collaborative study and individual assessment, and also between the imperative for personal research and the discipline of personal authorship.

• The breadth and depth of security and safety concerns within schools should not be underestimated. Until practitioners are reassured about these matters, progress will be halting. This reassurance must involve addressing practice that relates to the management of peer and teacher intimidation through Web 2.0 services and the cultivation of a less restrictive approach to managing selective access to internet sites in school.

Questions & Discussion

References

• Becta (2008). Web 2.0 technologies for learning at KS3 and KS4: Learners' use of Web 2.0 technologies in and out of school. June). Available from: http://archive.teachfind.com/becta/research.becta.org.uk/upload-dir/downloads/page_documents/research/web2_ks34_summary.pdf , accessed 23/10/12

• Cook, J. (2010). Mobile Phones as Mediating Tools Within Augmented Contexts for Development. International Journal of Mobile and Blended Learning, 2(3), 1-12, July-September. PDF available download: http://www.mendeley.com/download/public/7293303/4169531183/bc70de880a4f7a7dff633120efcc8e8f1221a0c6/dl.pdf

• JISC and British Library (2008) http://www.jisc.ac.uk/news/stories/2008/01/googlegen.aspx, accessed 10 January 2009

• Kress, G. (2003). Literacy in a New Media Age. London: Routledge.• New Media Consortium (2005). A Global Imperative – the report of

the 21st century literacy summit. (p. 2, original was in italics). Available at http://www.adobe.com/education/pdf/globalimperative.pdf, accessed 10th January, 2009.

• OECD (2004) Messages from PISA 2000. Available at: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/31/19/34107978.pdf

• Ofcom (2008) Media Literacy Audit - Report on UK children’s media literacy. http://www.ofcom.org.uk/advice/media_literacy/medlitpub/medlitpubrss/ml_childrens08/, accessed 5th September 2008.

• Pachler, N., Bachmair, B. and Cook, J. (2010). Mobile Learning: Structures, Agency, Practices. New York: Springer.

• Vygotsky, L. (1978 / 1930). Mind in society. The development of higher psychological processes. Edited by M. Cole et al., Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press.