October 25, 2005

Confusing Modernity and PostModernity in the Virtual World

For the last couple of days, I have been at an online education retreat. I heard a very interesting paper read (the speaker, rather than present a talk, read a paper), where the speaker discussed how all realities are becoming linked to the virtual.

I found this idea interesting up to the point of symantics. The questions becomes really where do we draw the line between reality and non-reality or virtual. If you were a post-modern radical constructionist, then you might argue that all things are just a construction and thus the real may or may not exist, but we will never know it since we can only interpret our perceptions. The speaker did not go that far, but was learning towards a multiple perceptual constructed reality. He was also clearly in the social learning model camp, although at this point, there were no clear indications of any constructivist leanings. Therein lay the problem.

Although the speaker had just spent 10 minutes reading a paper on how reality is constructed to the point where most experiences could be considered virtual and thus virtual may have little meaning, he then went on to state what was the best way to teach online, in a narrative structure of right and wrong. I find it very difficult to resolve this interpretation. It can be argued that everyone has a perspective to bring to a discussion and thus a discussion allows for more viewpoints to be entered into discussion, but that in no way says that I should teach addition through group discourse as the best method for all individuals if any. It presents an argument for group discourse about controversial topics but does not prove that the discourse is the assignment rather than a final individual interpretation of that discourse along with other readings in the form of a paper or other assessment.

Why bring this topic up? I simply want to argue that you cannot suggest a philosophical standing, then use that standing to support the ideals of group work in a manner that denounces principles within the philosophical set. At one point, it was stated that all people would agree that group work is the best way to go, and online, and I think that the speaker believed it.

Posted by vvarvel at 03:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack