A interview with Michael Cole: cognition, digital technologies and learning in a cultural-historical perspective

Abstract

The invention of touch screen technology has made digital technologies increasingly accessible to different populations in the world and to different social classes. However, the motivation for the interview reported here is in the growing access by children ages between 0 and 6 years to that technology. Even if not knowing how to read or write, those children navigate with mastery through the literate world with the devices endowed with this specific technology - smartphones and the tablets. The dissemination and increasing use of this technology has fueled polarized opinions about the advantages and disadvantages of its daily use. National and international pediatrics associations have brought recommendations for care, monitoring and/or restriction in use. They present research that suggests possible speech delay, motor development impairment and attention deficit, among others. On the other hand, there are researchers analyzing the use of technologies in a positive way, for example, seeing their contribution to the literacy process (Neumann & Neumann, 2014). In the face of these differences, we sought to hear the opinion of the emeritus psychologist of the University of California-San Diego, Michael Cole. Cole was one of the researchers responsible for the introduction and publication of Vigotski in the Americas and has a vast list of publications on the mediation of instruments in cognition and learning (e.g. Cole & Engeström, 1993). Here we present an interview video recorded in Skype, and later transcribed, in which we sought to understand if and how digital media, and more specifically that with touch screen technology, can influence children's cognitive development. First, we outline a brief biography of Cole, and then we present the transcript of the interview in its entirety.