Saturday, October 1, 2011

Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory: Instructional Technology (IT) Perspective

The advent of the application of Vygotsky's sociocultural theory via instructional technology uses, for example, computer games and video games on children cognitive development ability was dated back to 1934, when American writer E.B. White (1993) warned that television was going to be the test of modern world. He also asserted that, we shall either remain stand or fall by the television.

Although, this proclaimed assertion on television has became the hottest issue today, more especially in the area of children social, emotional and cognitive development.

The impact of television and other media on the sociocultural mental development of children have became the most common topic of discussion among psychologists, and researching is on going in the area of finding the impact of environment on children cognitive development and all this researches rooted from Vygotsky's sociocultural theory on children cognitive development.

Before further advancement, on the above discussion, it's seems there is need to give a little preamble on "Lev Vygotsky". Lev Vygotsky was one of the famous theorist on child cognitive development, although he died in the early 1934, before his theory was fully developed.

Vygotsky's sociocultural theory became one of the most influential theories of cognitive development which reached its peak popularity during the 1980's and 1990's respectively. It was in that time the impact of television and other media outlets on children was under strict scrutiny.

The Objectives of Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory
i) The theory may help us understand "Why" and "How" television, video games, computer games and other related media can strongly influence children cognitive development.
ii) The theory may be of benefit in facilitating understanding of the role plays by observation on children cognitive development processes.
iii) The theory as one of it's objective signifies that, interactions among people or children peer groups influence children cognitive development ability, (Sternberg, et al., 2002).

Distinctive nature of Vygotsky's sociocultural affiliation and today's world view

Vygotsky used interchangeably the word " environment" with "their world" and that only signifies the wider scope of the term.

Culture today is made up of a technology-reliant society dependent upon television and other electronic media such as computers, cd's players, video etc., as a primary source of entertainment. The most saddest situation is how children often do not know what to do when television, computer or video games are not available, hence the common utterance of the words “I’m bored” or "I'm tired".

This may be what most distinguishes the present era from that of Vygotsky's time. Children environment today is quite different than that on which Vygotsky would have based his sociocultural theory.

Nevertheless, his theory may be apply now more than ever before, with media becoming such a powerful and a permanent part of children live in their immediate environment.



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