Understanding Online Education


I II III IV V





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I
One

of the planks

covering the window

was loosening, so I tried, and

did, in fact, remove it. It was the largest

plank, covering nearly the entire center portion

of the window. Though it was only a small pane, the

light shining in was extraordinarily bright. With the sun-

light beaming in, I could see straight through, beyond the corridor.

I could see where I was, finally -- where I was and how I had gotten

here for the first time. Even the strangeness of the spinning

wheel dissipated in the brilliance of the sunlight.

Faintly, I could hear something -- a calling?

I followed the sound to find a most

beautiful sparrow: his feathers,

lyre-shaped in a dis-play

of courtship.

II
How
do we feel
about progression --
human, technical or otherwise?



We
tend to
think of it as
a symptom of modernity,
one of the founding institutions
of modernism: pushing, sailing -- ultimately
racing -- ahead. But where is ahead? It is straight-
ahead; modernism does not wander from the linear path.



Here

is where

we must make

a distinction: as post-

moderns must not deny pro-

gress, in terms of a forward motion

or movement. For in so doing, we also

naively deny our rhythmic sense-ability.

Forward-ness is not necessarily characteristic

of the vertical -- it may also be applied

to the horizontal -- to the diagonal.

Inversion and regression need

not be equated, opposed.

Inventiveness is a

ped-a-gog-i-cal

imperative.

III
The understood is already beneath, passed -- past.
Its position is suspended in time and tense,
as is the triad. What is past can never
again be otherness, outside.
It becomes of one,
with-in.

IV
Online education has indeed defied traditions of historical linearity:

Its

originS

are witnessed

in various locationS,

on various continentS --

its international applicationS

recorded by individual inventorS.



It is
at once
both old and new --
atemporally, yet simultaneously --
three tenses of past, present and future.



(1)

Compared

with other forms

of educational technology,

it is, of course, a rather recent

phenomenon. Yet with technological

advancement(s) occurring at increasingly

rapid rates, the lifespan of each so-called break-

through has been significantly lessened -- so much so,

in fact, that there is no longer a traditional paradigmatic

shift in defining the end of one and the beginning of another.

(2)
Technical
applications of varied
ages and capabilities actively
working independently and in tandem
with one another: a superhighway without speed limits
affords the unlikely combination of racecars, rickshaws and rockets.

(3)

Asynchronous

communication facilitates

global learning and significantly

increases and improves availability, collaboration

and participation in learning strategies. Important to note,

however: it is not only the actual hardware that is evolving --

but the ways in which we use and think about technology itself.

V
Archer burning -- sometimes too bright -- giving
~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~
Purpose and power in meaing and light.
~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~
From structure, form of expression grows
~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~
Longsight in, if thereof one knows:
~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~
Lyre cradled, lyrics sung --
~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ -
Of music, metre and
~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~
ambiguous
~ - ~ - ~ -
tongue.








© Copyright 1996 by J. Fischer.
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced, in any form or by any means, without permission, granted in writing.