I stood by the Clyde today looking at its gently rippling surface:

 

 

tiny pools of murky greyness

merging with splashes of sunny reflections

to separate an instant later

in a constant pulsating movement

Water, as Bayne (2004: 303) clarifies in her description of Deleuze and Guattari’s smooth and striated cultural spaces, represents smoothness per excellence, here, in my context, of course simultaneously striated by the river man-made embankments.

What I like about Bayne’s argumentation is the way she emphasises how the two spaces penetrate each other and emerge from each other (2004: 305) in a process of sometimes peaceful, sometimes conflictual co-existence and co-operation, echoed by Cousin (2005:123) who describes technology and pedagogy as ‘overlapping, complementary, conflictual, dynamic’ in their relationship . Neither of the domains is given primacy, neither of them is better – it’s ‘and ... and ... and’, which leaves room for the surprising and the unexpected (Cousin, 2005:124), rather than ‘either ... or’. Bayne (2004) and Cousin (2005) suggest parity and equity epitomised in collaboration instead of subordination within hierarchical structures. That is the first step towards blurring the boundaries in the papers about the uncanny discussed in earlier posts as well as Donna Haraway’s Cyborg Manifesto.

However, the methodologies used in HE seem to be mostly based on the latter paradigms, i.e. ‘centralising practices of teaching, assessment and supervision’ (Cousin, 2005:121), which could explain why the web (that part that is surfed not cruised – Bayne 2004: 304) gets subjected to striation, e.g. illustrated by the use of virtual learning environments (Bayne, 2004:312-313 and Cousin, 2005:120-123). Apart from the problems related to the institutions themselves, smoothness cannot be idealised or romanticised as the panacea for the weaknesses of the current educational system: Cousin (2005) warns us against losing oneself in the promiscuous web and going ultra fanciful post-modern. Bayne also stresses that smooth spaces should not be perceived as a saviour bringing liberation from the constraints of the hierarchy (2004: 304). Nevertheless, she suggests that smoothness is explored more deeply and attempts are made to unleash its potential in HE so that the imbalance between the modernist (hierarchical, structured) and postmodern approaches is redressed.

It is paradoxical how smoothness/rhizome oriented strategies might often end up supporting the structure and hierarchy (an example of blurring the boundaries?) - while discussing the education in cyberspace, the human need or more probably academic practice gains the foreground in which things have to be named, categorised neatly into genealogies and as a result both academics introduce binary dichotomies: Cousin introduces ‘arboreal’ and ‘rhizome’ while Bayne discusses ‘smooth’ and striated’, followed by lists of opposing characteristics. Instead of the table illustrating these oppositions, I have opted for a wordle that successfully blurs them

 

 

In her paper, Bayne makes use of different metaphors as after Nunes she believes they ‘function as performative speech acts’ (2004: 304). Inspired by this I would like to point out another thing that could perhaps help advance the necessary blurring is a slight adjustment in the terminology – I’m proposing this very tentatively though, aware of my lack of expertise. When reading the papers about use of digital technologies in higher education what strikes me is the constant use of the word ‘pedagogy’ although university students, especially on post-grad courses, are adults. Of course, the term is most probably used in a broad sense of the study of being a teacher or the process of teaching and besides the term ‘andragogy’ has been critiqued extensively; however, the root of the word pedagogy ‘pais’ meaning ‘child’ has made me think that it could implicitly exacerbate the situation within HE and inhibit the shift that the papers are calling for.

When you think of the child, the situational context that springs to mind is that of a family and the relationship with the parent which, taking the physical, emotional and intellectual aspects, can be traced along the vertical, traditionally expressing a degree of control and dependency, in other words hierarchy which is also typical of the university and the students, as well as the teacher and the student (at least in the modernist understanding). No wonder that when on the educational arena another player turns up, that is digital technologies, it’s straightaway fitted (subordinated) into that structure too! - Cousin describes that in much more detail and with greater eloquence. That could be why virtual learning environments are willingly adopted as they lend themselves to the vertical structure very well – unidirectionality, the hierarchy of users and their privileges (course designer/admin, teacher, student), closedness (you can get in only via special secure gateways), tracking and monitoring facilities, sometimes even the interface itself (for example in moodle, the way the weekly modules can be made visible and how they unfold top-down on the page) – a little digression here which I can’t resist – some time ago I attended two webinars on m-learning and it seems to me that the apps approach could be likened to VLEs as it could be subsumed as dishing out knowledge in form of digestible and discrete packages of knowledge – flashcards, quizzes, etc

I thought, on a very superficial level, that swapping ‘ped’ with ‘andro’ (or using an altogether different term) could affect how education is perceived. The relationship between two adults is more of a partnership so mapping it out would proceed on a horizontal plain. In education terms it could translate into peer-to-peer or even expert-to-expert relationship between the teacher and the – to my delight I have discovered Prof Mayes talking about horizontal learning in his paper Groundhog Day again? And I think as a learner I could say that I have experienced this type of learning here on the course!

Lastly, such a viewpoint could perhaps facilitate understanding that digital technologies are not merely enhancement tools, separated, inert and thus a medium that serves educational purposes but they are a serious and equally important player on the educational arena.

 

 

Back to Goffman’s dramaturgical approach – I came across it again in Steve Wheeler’s blog post which refers to Goffman while trying to discuss the issues of personal space and place in the context of online learning/teaching experience.  According to Wheeler, there is a relationship between the self-presentation and how we perceive space and place. In order to perform well in the theatre of life/work and take the stage by storm, we need a well-defined role that suits us, our personality and skills, a script and an array of props. If any of these is missing, we might lose the sense of space which, in turn, might negatively affect our performance. For example, when I go and teach (face-to-face), I am aware of my role (and strangely enough confidence takes over my normal shyness), I’ve got my lesson plan and a stack of worksheets, sometimes an audio or a video, an internet-enabled computer and so on. Sometimes I divert from the prescribed course of action, especially if I see affordances for exploring other topics or if technology doesn’t work but with years of experience such emergencies become part of the role, sudden prop-lessness or script-lessness become part and parcel of the role and if they shake up my sense of space, it is only for a split second. Wheeler stresses the importance of continuity as a prerequisite for the sense of space and place and he claims that even nomads recreate this continuity be means of travelling with familiar objects that help them tame any new place they decide to settle down in. This resonates with me a lot – having been on the go for the last 6 years, I’ve managed to re-establish my sense of space across countries and cities with a handful of faithful objects: my fav music tunes, books, laptop and a camera.

However, how does this translate into learning online? In my previous real-time online sessions (video chat or text chat via Skype, Elluminate or WiZiQ) I was aware of the role (a teacher learning how to use technology), the props (familiar software) and the script (agenda was always provided). The same referred to the discussion forums: all the weekly tasks were clearly spelt out with questions to consider although we were always welcome to raise any other issues too. So, clearly something familiar-looking (in terms of a syllabus and objectives for the whole course and each of the weeks), safe and secure (closed moodle environment), cosy (8 people and a tutor), structured, focused on process but actually outcome oriented – a journey from A to B, from knowing little about using technology in language teaching to facilitating a fully-fledged online class on story-telling or a longer-term project on collaborative report writing. I enjoyed those course and when creating my first online course and the second I replicated those patterns as it is how things are in education, aren’t they? and everybody expects them to be like this, right? (I’m making assertions on purpose)

Now I come to do this course and most things seem to be subverted or somehow stirred or unsettled:

• what is my role? yes, I am a student but fascinating as the content is, I’m often unsure how I am going to use it my professional context; come on, is this all applicable, replicable?
• what are my props? WebCT looks similar to the familiar Moodle but not the same, I find it quite clunky. The blog got deserted and swapped for the wiki at some point for similar reasons.
• what is my script? Apart from the list of readings and some guidance on what to focus on, the students are given pretty much a free hand in raising questions on the forums ... and there are so many people and so many tutors that ... I’m losing my sense of space and place and I escape. There is little structure to lean on and let’s face it I love structures and patterns and getting from A to B – my previous MA dissertation was on generative-transformational grammar and I loved drawing tree structures for sentences and tracing down movements in deep structure! And my doodling is always in form of lines forming multiple squares and rectangles ....

 

 

.... but at the same time I like organic forms too, wandering aimlessly, free improvised jazz and impressionist pictures and the dusk when the day is almost finished but not yet, sort of liminal, transitional ...

What I am trying to say is that there is dualism in me. Part of me loves the course for the challenge it presents – the readings raise interesting questions about education, learning and teaching, undermine my own perceptions and beliefs and introduce other ways of seeing, reconfiguring me as a learner and an educator – Cousin (2005:119) says after Davis (1998) and McLuhan (1964) that with technological inventions ‘we partially reconstruct the self and its world, creating new opportunities (and new traps) for thought, perception and social experience.’

Part of me dislikes it, because I feel deprived of my props and scripts and struggle to find my place and space. I also think and am puzzled as to how to implement what I am learning in my context, how to introduce activities that would encourage smooth learning when I have fixed course objectives and assessment (very much all about ticking the boxes and discrete items). The issue of assessment which is inherent in HE also poses some questions. It seems it is not only students that are led to explore the troublesome but also the tutors might experience the same – if liminal spaces are associated with intellectual uncertainty beyond the black and white of right and wrong – the foundations of the assessment have to be reconfigured too and encompass the spectrum of greys between and betwixt (something you Clara referred to in your recent presentation).

 

The final set of course texts (Levy 2007a, Levy 2007b and Land 2006) explicating the need for silence and sanctuary in one’s life (my first prezi summarising the key ideas) has provided a lot of food for thought and, what is interesting, that provision turned out to be very well-timed.

First, after the frenetic ten weeks of an intense course, it brought a perfect closure, tying up all the dangling loose ends and allowing one to distance oneself from the experience by encouraging to take ‘time off’ in order to reflect on the ‘what’, ‘how’ and ‘why’ of e-learning (and learning in general), digital literacies and presence. For me, the texts had a particularly soothing effect on how I perceive my participation in the course and in online spaces. As documented here on the blog, I have focused solely on my individual learning process, without trying much to engage with others, which I had very mixed feelings about, ranging from anxiety and guilt through occasional indifference to enjoyment I derived from being undistracted and independent . Although I’ve perhaps taken my solitary habits too far, the texts have helped me understand that one does not always have to be in the centre of things, that sometimes it’s good to take a step aside, that solitude is justifiable and beneficial as it might provide time for reflection, deep thinking and thus unleash creativity. I think, without sounding too pompous, I can confirm that within the limits of my mental faculties, I have experienced little epiphanies and sparks of ‘divine inspiration’ while engaging with the course content, leading to a deeper understanding of the discussed phenomena. I’m especially thankful for the fact that I could learn about threshold concepts and liminal spaces, something that Land (2006) links to in his paper about dromology. I’ve got a feeling that the elements of that massive jigsaw puzzle I faced back in January are starting to fall into places – it’s rewarding to discover their interrelatedness, a telling sign of deeper thinking (?) With all respect to my colleagues and tutors as I am sure that the discussion forums are teeming with great ideas and links to excellent resources, sometimes I think I haven’t lost much. I might have less but sometimes ‘less’ is better. Maybe by sticking to my own comfort zone, I have prevented myself from getting bogged down in making sense of frenetic buzziness of discussion forums and let myself hear my own voice speaking!

At the same time, I have noticed a slowly emerging trend on the ELT blogs – a couple of renowned practitioners wrote about the increasing dilution of high-context relationships in their professional lives  due to the profusion of cybercommunications with a number of ‘followers’ and other ‘friends’ on social networking sites and expressed a strong longing for fewer but deeper interactions. One ‘guru’ has questioned the value of personal social networks, taking it so seriously that he decided to commit twittercide and deactivated his account. Although it is generally considered a great loss among ELT community members, I can understand his reasons, even more now when I have read about the need for silence and sanctuary. Strangely enough, he is the same person I mentioned in the previous posting about the uncanny education (toward the end in the post scriptum) on the occasion of discussing two approaches in m-learning. The apps approach could be likened to the routinised ‘ratio’ thinking stipulated by (Levi 2007b). There is nothing bad about such quizzes and alike because they let language learners familiarise themselves with vocabulary and grammar chunks probably quite effectively but other approaches are needed too which will allow them to use the language creatively and expressively. And as you have aptly summarised it, Clara, we should be  speakers of thoughts, not mimics of noise!

What really struck me in Levy’s paper is the origin of the word ‘school’ – it derives from ‘leisure’ (2007b: 247), which itself has a very interesting etymology in Greek philosophy! I found these two facts very revealing. And since universities - but I think this applies to other educational institutions too - are regarded as our culture’s think tanks, on the one hand, and ‘descendants of Plato’s academic’, on the other hand, contemplation and reflection should be placed in the foreground (Levy, 2007b:247). Land (2006:6) argues that these could facilitate better integration and thus transformative learning, in the process of which threshold concepts can be acquired, threshold concepts being important gateways providing insights into links between and within theories. The necessary processes of analysis and synthesis often resulting in problem formulation and solution as well as fostering creativity and criticality in more general terms can be instigated and managed in slow motion of liminal spaces more effectively than in ‘concertina-like time compression’. Since life seems to have accelerated rapidly in recent years and so creativity is likely to be obstructed, Levy (2007b: 248) claims that unfortunately education often pursues these societal trends and focuses on preparing ‘efficient multi-taskers in a world of total work’ (247). This can be seen in business-like obsession with outcomes and objectives (CEFR), summative assessment being the driving force of teaching and learning (high-stakes English preparation courses I teach on) and students’ attitudes – interestingly enough two weeks ago in a class of 16 Chinese pre-masters students, to my question why they decided to do a uni course, 5 admitted it should increase their future job prospects, 4 wanted to get a degree (their hope being that a good job would follow), which shows their strategic and business-like thinking. Of course, it can be questioned whether such strategic approaches are a result or a reason for the education to often so oriented towards outcomes. Just to finish the digression on a more positive note, two of my students admitted honestly that they want to do it for the sake of life experience, which is a ray of hope! Land (2006) introduces an interesting concept of ‘virtual stacking’ in which ‘every vacant spot is filled’, debilitating our higher thinking skills of spotting intra- and interdisciplinary relations. Our knowledge becomes fragmented into bitesizes of often meaningless noise. Digesting so cooked ‘knowledge’ presents a challenge in terms of time. Suffering from its permanent shortage, we fall victim to Eriksen’s temporal principle which says that within unchanged time limits, attention span decreases as the amount of information grows. A vicious circle is thus created. Slowing down to contemplate paradoxically seems to be a solution for businesses, universities, organisations and individuals (Levi, 2007 and Loy, 2007).

What is alarming about the situation is that digital technologies often get blamed for such a state of affairs. As clarified in my prezi presentation, it’s not the Internet itself. Time compression seems to be strangely pre-programmed in the history of the human kind, particularly the contemporary one. Land (2006:7) points out how digital education often gets limited to stacking (within VLEs?) instead of being used for internal integration. This is probably due to reasons Cousin mentions in her 2005 paper, e.g. the toolbox view of technology. Instead, as Garrison and Anderson (2003:122) suggest, e-learning represents a new ‘learning ecology’, which for has a strong flavour of wetlands from the prezi. These and other smooth spaces might help us reconceptualise teaching and learning by establishing integrative practices (e.g. Landow’s hypertext, Ulmer’s electracy) and contemplative practices whereby individuals might focus ‘within and beyond the human’ (Braman, 2007; see also your comment on the uncanny).

 

Levy in his  introduction to the 2007special issue of Ethics and Information Technology entitled ‘Information, Silence and Sanctuary’ raised a few crucial questions:

• What do we mean by silence?
• Why and to what extent do we need it?
• To what extent do we need a sanctuary in, or from, cyberspace, and how might we achieve this?

 

in the sanctuary

 

mutely cheering itself on

the self performs a striptease

and gets pregnant with ideas

 

In the context of learning, creating materials, writing assignments and alike, silence for me often involves an act of courage as this is the moment when I am left on my own with the blank screen or page of paper and my thoughts (and sometimes there aren’t any) and there is no escape from not-thinking. I switch on my internal ears and eyes to listen and watch attentively for SOMETHING. Sometimes the Something stirs in my mind straight away, sometimes I need to wait. But when it comes, it engages me deeply, draws me in so much that it keeps me awake, seeps into my dreams and keeps simmering at the back of my mind even when going through the motions of the day. It leaves me exhausted but empowered.

****

This blog has provided me with a number of moments like the one above (something I could add to my arguments against Dreyfus' crticism of distance learning). When I first started, I thought it would be a journey from A to B, through a fairly familiar landscape of e-learning. It turned out to be a wander, by no means an aimless wander! I have gone to familiar quarters only to discover unknown cul-de-sacs, sometimes real gems. This makes me want more so I’d like to carry on – Again my life motto proves right perambulation stimulates the imagination (William Boyd)!

I thought of writing a summary at this point of the blog, just minutes before submission, but I’ve given up on this idea. Instead I’d like to share a personal impression. While doing the course, I often struck me how I go in circles around ideas, coming closer, picking up a detail, going away and coming back to understand better. Sometimes it felt I was unknowingly jumping ahead – I migrated to the wiki to discover weeks 8 and 9 were all wiki-based (I wasn’t checking the course schedule in advance), I mentioned Community of Inquiry on my wiki and later we read the whole chapter on it from Garrison's book on e-learning. It baffled me – this penetration of ideas and thoughts, strange hunches. It felt a bit magical at times, uncanny, to use my favourite now word. Another one is rhizome and now time for my little story:

My first posting compared blogging to growing a flower. I didn’t know at that moment that it would be an orchid (which often develops rhizomatic systems and which Deleuze and Guattari refer to in their work 'A Thousand Plateaus' mentioned both in Bayne’s and Cousin’s papers). Now this is a very strange orchid because here on the blog and the wiki I was tending to its tubers and rhizomes but the pretty petals were already formed a year earlier – it’s like growing a plant backwards! Strangely enough, I put a little video together in February 2010 – embedded below – which, could it be an uncanny coincidence?, somehow subsumes my learning here?

The video shows various pictures of orchids from Glasgow Botanic Gardens mashed up with an audio consisting of layers of narration which penetrate each other, merge and diverge, creating a strange-sounding song (uncanny blurring of boundaries, penetration of the striated and the smooth, the dynamic relationship between the techs and pedagogy, all being the landmarks of my e-learning). The narration is in Polish but basically it’s a short fragment from Wikipedia (a mother of all hyper-texts, wikis being another area I saw in a different light) about classification of orchids. And I remember moments of concentrated contemplation and creativity when working on the audio, moments of silence and sanctuary!

 

 

Thank you!