Mass production and trivial social exchange in distance education
I was reading about Von Foerster's conjecture the other day, and it really made me understand how the nature of trivial social interaction between human beings is being used as a way to make social influence reduce the variety we have with respect to resources that we can access. Von Foerster basically says that the long tail and the way that market shares work in society make us become reliant on recommendations. As we look at what other people have thought, we begin to trivially construct our own social realities, without any actual interactions, based on the preferences of other people. Now, this basically panders to the expectations set out by larger interlocutors, rather than allowing for an actual back and forth to co-construct knowledge.
Don't we see such trajectories in distance education today? The interactions that distance education students have with one another get more and more trivial as the long-tail prevails. They sit in their own corners and process information that has little scope for ideological discussion or manipulation rather than exchanging ideas with one another. Like Von Foerster said, this mass-production of educational trajectories thus serves a large number of people, but reduces the number of possible outcomes from these educational trajectories. Larger systems like conservative think-tanks and corporate bodies seek to control education. The best way to control education and mass-produce the stereotypes and archetypes that exist within society today is through mass-production. With distance education, this capacity for mass-production is even more pervasive.
If Vygotsky claims that rich social processes enable us to internalize knowledge most effectively, why are we moving away from this notion to trivialize social exchange within classrooms. In distance education, the possibility for meaningful, deliberative exchange is exacerbated by the limited capacity for CMC (computer mediated communication). This is only because we are still stuck in the modern age with respect to the way we view the internet. We often hear people saying "technology is harmful" because it fragments our thinking. This is only because we are glued to conceptions of the past, where the internet is a product that controls our thinking. In the post-modern sense, the internet loosens boundaries and enables us to control the way we think by exchanging ideas with people within corners of cyberspace.
Aren't we restricting the memory of distance education students to be ape-like, and eidetic by mass-producing their learning experiences. The possibility for the construction of subjective realities for these students is only possible through a post-modernization of distance education practices.
The long-tail explains why the internet is perceived as harmful today.
Don't we see such trajectories in distance education today? The interactions that distance education students have with one another get more and more trivial as the long-tail prevails. They sit in their own corners and process information that has little scope for ideological discussion or manipulation rather than exchanging ideas with one another. Like Von Foerster said, this mass-production of educational trajectories thus serves a large number of people, but reduces the number of possible outcomes from these educational trajectories. Larger systems like conservative think-tanks and corporate bodies seek to control education. The best way to control education and mass-produce the stereotypes and archetypes that exist within society today is through mass-production. With distance education, this capacity for mass-production is even more pervasive.
But why don't we use it right?
If Vygotsky claims that rich social processes enable us to internalize knowledge most effectively, why are we moving away from this notion to trivialize social exchange within classrooms. In distance education, the possibility for meaningful, deliberative exchange is exacerbated by the limited capacity for CMC (computer mediated communication). This is only because we are still stuck in the modern age with respect to the way we view the internet. We often hear people saying "technology is harmful" because it fragments our thinking. This is only because we are glued to conceptions of the past, where the internet is a product that controls our thinking. In the post-modern sense, the internet loosens boundaries and enables us to control the way we think by exchanging ideas with people within corners of cyberspace.
Aren't we restricting the memory of distance education students to be ape-like, and eidetic by mass-producing their learning experiences. The possibility for the construction of subjective realities for these students is only possible through a post-modernization of distance education practices.
The statement in your post "As we look at what other people have thought, we begin to trivially construct our own social realities, without any actual interactions, based on the preferences of other people." really feels right at least to me. Although I would have to acknowledge that sometimes we have hard time incorporating our preferred people's ideas when those are too different from my views, still I agree that our construction of knowledge and even positions are hugely affected by whom we feel closer, attached, and also whom we like. Motivated reasoning that are based on your motivations or emotions that you already hold, which then can lead your reasoning to be tilted toward a certain position, feels like a somewhat related concept regarding this.
ReplyDeleteMy concern about distance education is it is becoming the "alternative" to the formal education. College students use it as the class they can save more time. Online degree program uses as the school you don't have to actually go. If we use distance education as the alternative tool to reach our traditional goal, it shows more disadvantages than advantages compared to face-to-face education. I wish, yes only wish that distance education can break the assumptions that are defined by the traditional education system. Think about how people voluntarily gather together on the internet to do what they are intrinsically motivated to do rather than "we can't do it offline so we have to do it online".
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