Re: discussions of mca articles

From: david.preiss@yale.edu
Date: Fri Nov 07 2003 - 11:34:40 PST


Hello all,

Where is the Carol Lee article? I only could find one written by Kevin
Leander in LEA's site.

David

Quoting SHAWN ROWE <shawnrowe@sbcglobal.net>:

> Hello discussants,
> This is a test post as I have been having trouble (as Mike
> noted). Assuming you get this, I'll be sending along some comments
> soon on the Carol Lee article. In the meantime, if anyone has any
> helpful advice on shepherding such discussion (what you'd like to see
> and not like to see) please feel free to let me know.
> On behalf of Jim Wertsch and myself
> Thanks
> Shawn Rowe
>
> Mike Cole <mcole@weber.ucsd.edu> wrote:
>
> Thanks for re-posting the navigational info, Steve. I'll try to
> explain the
> purpose. Thanks Andy, for asking the question. The community changes
> rapidly
> enough and we are all so busy it is easy to forget some of what we
> have,
> potentially, in common.
>
> MCA is an official JOURNAL. Its relatively cheap, especially
> electronically,
> but still beyond the economic reach of some and on the margins of
> academic
> viability for others owing to its particular
> interdisciplinary/intellectual/
> ideological hybridity.
>
> MCA was started at the suggestion of Yrjo Engestrom who noted that
> its
> predecessor, the Newsletter of LCHC, was not an archival journal and
> so
> could not provide a publishing outlet for the growing number of
> people
> interested in the concatination of of research/theory, from Vygotsky
> to Dewey
> to Lave to McDermott to Rogoff to ....... all which had as one of
> its
> central features the role of culture in human nature. I resisted the
> idea.
> Too much work, too much formality, who needs it?
>
> Yrjo and I were both right. Too much work, too much formality, but
> many
> young people DID and DO need it. It provides legitimacy of a kind not
> easy
> to come by in contemporary academia.
>
> Thanks to the understanding good will of many people, we have been
> able to
> send a good part of MCA offshore. At present, Harry Daniels and Anne
> Edwards
> at Birmingham are lead editors and we at lchc provide backup support.
> In
> some year to come I hope we can move the editorial center yet again
> and
> further de-center it from the U.S. and (god grant us the good luck!)
> decrease
> the level of local support we need to provide. This is not laziness
> speaking,
> it is the firm conviction that what we refer to as cultural
> historical
> activity theory (CHAT), which assumes the genuine connectedness of
> cultural
> historical approaches inspired by Vygotsky and activity centered
> approaches
> which are attributed by some to Leontiev, are not, in principle, in
> conflict,
> but rather, are complementary and were brought into conflict owing
> to
> inhuman conditions that existed in the then-USSR in the 1930's. Of
> course,
> CHAT also describes our practices here on xmca, as you may have
> noted.....
> or should I say, have gained some notion of? :-)
>
> Our publisher, Erlbaum, allows us to designate one free to anyone
> anywhere
> with WWW access a free article for discussion. Thanks to local
> volunteer
> help, we have managed to have xmca members vote on what article they
> want
> to discuss collectively.
>
> The article this time is by Carol Lee. It is part of a special issue
> put
> together by Xiadong Liu (currently at Columbia, Teacher's College)
> and
> Giyoo Hatano, currently professor of University of the Air in Tokyo
> as
> a tribute to the work of Jan Hawkins, onetime member of LCHC's
> precursor
> in New York who died of cancer not long ago. The overall theme is
> "Culture,
> Technology, and Development."
>
> Carol's article describes her cultural modelling approach to pedagogy
> and
> its relationship to design of computer environments. It was chosen in
>
> a squeeker election over other, equally worthy articles.
>
> Each time an article is selected, a different member of the
> editorial
> board shepards the discussion, often with help from a colleague or
> student.
> This time, Jim wertsch and his graduate student, Shawn (sorry I do
> not
> remember your last name, John!) are the moderators.
>
> Shawn has tried to post, but the xmca gremlin, perhaps blinded by
> fires
> in our area, would not let him pass, so a note is forthcoming.
>
> And so it goes, Spirit willing.
> mike
>



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