Designing children's software to ensure productive interactivity through collaboration in the zone of proximal development (ZPD)

Abstract

In this article the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) is considered as the foundation for a software design framework. The issues of interactivity and collaboration are the focus of our interpretation of Vygotsky's work for application to the software design process. The Ecolab is a piece of educational software developed using this Vygotskian design framework. It is aimed at 10 and 11-year old children learning about Ecology and has been evaluated with a class of such learners. The results of this evaluation are discussed in terms of the interactions and collaborations children experienced and in the light of the learning gains they made while using the software. It was concluded that the ZPD is a useful theoretical construct for educational software design, but that creating the most effective collaborative interactions between software and the computers is complex and individual to each learner. In addition, children were not effective at setting themselves challenging tasks or in seeking appropriate assistance. To be successful such software therefore needs to embody flexible and fadable scaffolding and either maintain or expect as input, sufficient information about the individual learner to offer them appropriately challenging activities.

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