Assignment:

Vygotsky from Pepperdine Malt on Vimeo.

Vygotsky is referred to as the Mozart of Psychology. Use his concepts regarding the psychology of play, mediated artifacts and social interaction to make a music video showing how “make believe” can create a zone of proximal development (ZPD.).

“Make-believe play creates a zone of proximal development in a child. In play, the child always behaves beyond his average age, above his daily behavior; in play it is as though he were a head taller than himself. As in the focus of a magnifying glass, play contains all developmental tendencies in condensed form and is itself a major source of development (1933/1978, p. 102).”

–Note:  I did this assignment taking on the POV of Vygotsky himself.  It was very fun and meant to be humorous—though it came out “slightly” political and violent  (Vygotsky’s theory was developed shortly after the Russian revolution and critics charged him with “idealist aberrations” which at that time equaled disloyalty to the Communist Party.)  The song is Flobots’ Handlebars from the Fight with Tools Album as there are many connections with Vygotsky’s Tools of the Mind.  Here are my lyrics over that melody:

I go to school with no paperwork, no paperwork,
I go to school with no paperwork no paperwork
Look up me, look up me,
I’m the Mozart of psychology, a theorist and a prodigy
Call me Lev, Vygotsky
Listen to my freestyle flow, maybe something you’d like to know
Like what do children see when they make believe
And what the heck is ZPD?
The zone of proximal development
Hangout with those a little more brilliant than you
Learn from them they learn from you
Next thing you know
Invent the internet, free media, wikipedia whatever, don’t take much
I can make believe like a four year old, like a four year old, like a four year old.
Check it, check it
Any new messages?
Yeah I got one from beyond the grave
How we’re making a nation full of slaves
This Cultural mediation looks
Lacking guided participation
It’s dead, just like me
I got killed from TB
But if not I’d shed a thought or two
On what you should do
With your education
So lacking in imagination
I’d make schools so much more
Than a big book store keeping score
I’d build playgrounds with trampolines
And have big battles with kings and queens
The kids are the dreamers and producers
Of a little thing called our future
They treat us like insignificant subordinate conjunctions
They program us like computers with robotic functions
If we are to be free of oppressive instruction
We must employ creative destruction
Lest be swallowed by their mechanic vultures
Communication guides the role of our culture
Social interaction will help us survive
And build new habits of mind, language and life
A revolution of evolution is the one that I trust
The weapons are in our mind and fight we must
But if we go down before our day,
Remember these things that I wanted to say:
Inside every one there burns a fire
Together we realize creative desires
The powers that be must respect our know how
The powers that be must stop putting us down.