To me, the so what is pretty big. I never discussed plankton as having the capacity to develop concepts, only humans. Plankton do not become teachers, which is the context in which I developed this understanding. If teachers can instruct in ways in which outcomes can be anticipated, they'll be more effective than if what they believe will happen does not. If the alternative is trial-and-error (which is what I have seen in teachers without conceptual grounding), then a good bit of instruction will be a flop, and kids will come away meeting fewer instructional goals. So that's what.
-----Original Message-----
From: Andy Blunden [mailto:ablunden@mira.net]
Sent: Sunday, April 17, 2011 9:37 AM
To: Peter Smagorinsky
Cc: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
Subject: Re: [xmca] concepts
I accept that Peter. But really, so what? :) A food gradient allows
plankton to anticipate the presence of food. What does it tell us about
concepts?
Andy
Peter Smagorinsky wrote:
Note that I said nothing about seeing into The Future. Rather, I said that having a concept enables one to ANTICIPATE future events. I would describe the capacities you refer to below as elements of a concept, and agree that they help both adaptivity and the anticipation of events.