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Hi Alan
... or speak with your monkey on your shoulder...
Ralf
... or speak with your monkey on your shoulder...
Ralf
I'd like to object to the ungeekiness of these solutions 
Surely a moodler could come up with a suitable avatar solution that would nod wisely and smile at appropriate intervals.

Surely a moodler could come up with a suitable avatar solution that would nod wisely and smile at appropriate intervals.
My monkey ran away at Ayodhya station when I went to India for six months. Now all I have left on my shoulder is a chip.
And it is not a monk (in spite of Pope Benedict's recruitment efforts).
What am I to do?
Adrian
And it is not a monk (in spite of Pope Benedict's recruitment efforts).
What am I to do?
Adrian
In reply to Adrian Stock
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In reply to Deleted user
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I am lost for words
(cue teddy bear)
Unfortunately, the second Vygotsky article has a terminal case of link rot.
http://www.learning-theories.com/category/constructivist-theories has a quick summary of Vygotsky's key concepts and other Constructivist theories.
Visual learners and pragmatic teachers might prefer http://coe.sdsu.edu/eet/articles/sdtheory/index.htm.
Cheers,
Russell
http://www.learning-theories.com/category/constructivist-theories has a quick summary of Vygotsky's key concepts and other Constructivist theories.

Cheers,
Russell
Actually, Vygotsky did *not* ever say to put a teddy bear on your computer monitor. He recommended a hamster. Hamsters proved to double the rate of social development over bears and other furry animals. However, for me, I find neither as effective as good old Bert, a wise and witty character from Sesame Street to be my MKO.
P.S. Thanks, Russel for the links--the second one has an amazing flash animation showing a transformation from a traditional cognitivist lecture room to a ZPD collaborative classroom.
P.S. Thanks, Russel for the links--the second one has an amazing flash animation showing a transformation from a traditional cognitivist lecture room to a ZPD collaborative classroom.

Or speak to good old Eliza:
http://www-ai.ijs.si/eliza-cgi-bin/eliza_script
or design your own online character:
For a 3-D design of your teddybear there is always good old:
I am a huge fan of Vygotsky, and think it's great the impact of mediation that he identified with language has now been applied to technology. However, I don't think he had so much to say about the 'learning of the teacher' (but would love to hear about it if he did).
Anyone who has been a teacher will know of the moment when one's own understanding leaps as we explain something to another see
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&num=20&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&q=learning%20through%20teaching
In reply to Frances Bell
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Hi
my daughter is 10 to-day. Her teddy is called Brown Teddy' (BT). BT has been lost, wet,cold, in the hold, threatened, but ultimately 'loved'.
The ZPD requires all of human life to relate with all of human life. The power of constructivism is that we are all in it together - Yes put BT on top of the monitor, but relate to people through it.......
Hope I make a little sense
Donal
my daughter is 10 to-day. Her teddy is called Brown Teddy' (BT). BT has been lost, wet,cold, in the hold, threatened, but ultimately 'loved'.
The ZPD requires all of human life to relate with all of human life. The power of constructivism is that we are all in it together - Yes put BT on top of the monitor, but relate to people through it.......
Hope I make a little sense
Donal

For those who don't know it, the admirable author allows free download of the whole site (HTML and SWF files), which will run on a stand-alone computer, and probably in a Files area in a Moodle course.
Cheers
Russell
I like the idea, it would look better than just talking to the computer, I have a small pile of bluetack but it is not the same as a teddy. I could bring in the teddy from my car, I travel too much and the company helps a bit. If the teddy had a webcam and a mike it would be perfect.
Ward - Not surprisingly, there actually is a teddy bear that serves as a covert webcam. Peace - Anthony
Somehow, I find that rather disturbing. Remembering a freer childhood, I find it worrying that today's children are surveilled from the scanned foetus to the digitally imaged baby, to the web cammed child. The good thing is that children, being inventive will rise above it and work around the restrictions.
Actually the web cam bear was developed to monitor baby sitters and nannies not to be played with.