Hyperlinks and ZPD

This post is primarily for Maggie (so if anybody sees her tell her to go read the blog) but for everybody else as well. As you remember yesterday Maggie was talking about her idea for hyperelinks and I started talking about the relationship to Sen and Freedom. Okay, do you all remember the idea of the Zone of Proximal Development from Vygotsky. Many people in the United States looove that theory but I have always had trouble with it because it is so controlled by the adult in a mentor-neophyte relationship (see my article in Educational Researcher). But what if you look at following hyperlinks as basically a zone of proximal development but one that is created by the neophyte/child him or herself. They will keep following hyperlinks as far as their level of development will allow, where interest is actually pushing them to the end points of their abilities, because they have the freedom to follow those end points and are not constrained by either adults or even peers, nor do they have to please these people.

This also speaks to Mitch's complaint that individuals will just go as far as they want to go. But maybe they will just go as far as they are capable of going where their own individual abilities are driven by their interest and their freedom of movement through the blogosphere. They will stop, but where they do stop can be considered the far end of their zone of proximal development.