Volume 18 · Number 2 · Pages 188–198
Living in Mapworld: Academia, Symbolic Abstraction, and the Shift to Online Everything

Simon Penny

Log in to download the full text for free

> Citation > Similar > References > Add Comment

Abstract

Context: During the Covid pandemic, teachers and academics at all levels were abruptly required to learn and deploy generic online educational tools that do not adequately substitute for many classroom or lab practices. In the rush to make education viable during the pandemic, there was little time for critical analysis of the qualities of “online delivery,” especially with regard to embodied dimensions of cognition. Conventional academic styles of pedagogy and testing were commonly emulated. In the attempt to simply “keep the train on the rails,” there has been little time to assess what - cognitively or pedagogically - has been gained or lost. Problem: Computer and internet-based interactive applications have specific cognitive affordances and constraints that differ from the tangible embodied scenarios they sometimes purport to emulate. Traditional pedagogy in many disciplines entails a substantial component of “hands-on” learning, a complementary knowing how that enables practice, builds skills and provides metaphors and concepts. Existing software and interfaces do not cater well to training embodied skills, and perhaps cannot. In the absence of hands-on lab, studio and clinical experience that usually complements textbook-lecture-test styles of pedagogy, a knowing that (as opposed to knowing how) orientation was reinforced. The traditional recognition that embodied experience is an integral component of effective learning has been elided (similar elision occurs with respect to some online research practices. In emphasizing “problem-solving,” this instrumentalizing of a knowledge-that style of pedagogy usually elides the syncretic and creative cognitive corollary of problem framing. Method: I discuss online pedagogy and research from an enactive/embodied critical perspective and juxtapose case examples of embodied practices. Results: The conclusions drawn from this discussion are that important cognitive differences between face-to-face, hands-on pedagogy and research, and pedagogy and research conducted online are present and critical analysis of the situation is crucial for pedagogical and research effectiveness. Implications: Whether in pharmacology, mechanical engineering or social media, new technologies and technological systems often have unexpected effects when embedded in society. This is the case with online pedagogy. Critical assessment is overdue. Such will motivate new education research and human-computer design initiatives. Researchers in human-computer interaction, cognitive psychology, education design and other fields should take up the challenge. It remains a possibility that some embodied practices may simply not be compatible with online environments. It is incumbent upon institutions to take such issues seriously, or risk substantial impoverishment of the educational experience. Constructivist content: I analyze online pedagogy and research from an embodied and enactivist perspective, assessing the different qualities of sensorimotor engagement in screen-based activities as opposed to hands-on experiences. I argue that “knowing” is grounded in sensorimotorically multimodal embodied experiences, and recognize the limitations in the sensorimotor ecologies of online phenomena.

Key words: Content delivery, digital cultures, simulation, multimodality, online interaction, pandemic, pedagogy, performativity, sensorimotor.

Citation

Penny S. (2023) Living in mapworld: Academia, symbolic abstraction, and the shift to online everything. Constructivist Foundations 18(2): 188–198. https://constructivist.info/18/2/188

Export article citation data: Plain Text · BibTex · EndNote · Reference Manager (RIS)

Similar articles

Franchi S. (2013) Homeostats for the 21st Century? Simulating Ashby Simulating the Brain
Weiss M. G. (2013) Non-dualistic Sex. Josef Mitterer’s Non-dualistic Philosophy in the Light of Judith Butler’s (De)Constructivist Feminism
Bunnell P. & Riegler A. (2011) Maturana Across the Disciplines
Füllsack M. (2013) Constructivism and Computation: Can Computer-Based Modeling Add to the Case for Constructivism?
Zimmermann E., Peschl M. F. & Römmer-Nossek B. (2010) Constructivist Curriculum Design for the Interdisciplinary Study Programme MEi:CogSci – A Case Study

References

Abrahamson D., Dutton E. & Bakker A. (2021) Towards an enactivist mathematics pedagogy. In: Stolz S. A. (ed.) The body, embodiment, and education: An interdisciplinary approach. Routledge, London: 156–182. https://cepa.info/7085
Ash M. G. (2019) Interdisciplinarity in historical perspective. Perspectives on Science 27(4): 619–642. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Barry A. & Born G. (eds.) (2014) Interdisciplinarity: Reconfigurations of the social and natural sciences. Routledge, London. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Baudrillard J. (1983) The precession of simulacra. In: Simulacra and simulation. Translated by Paul Foss, Paul Batton and Philip Beitchman. Semiotext(e), New York: 1–81. French original published in 1981. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Borges J. L., (1975) A universal history of infamy. Translated by Norman Thomas de Giovanni. Penguin Books, London. Spanish original published in 1946. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Butler J. (1990) Gender trouble. Routledge, New York. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Chang E., Kim H. T. & Yoo B. (2020) Virtual reality sickness: A review of causes and measurements. International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction 36(17): 1658–1682. https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2020.1778351
Chronicle E. P., MacGregor J. N. & Ormerod T. C. (2004) What makes an insight problem? The roles of heuristics, goal conception, and solution recoding in knowledge-lean problems. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 30(1): 14–27. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Cifarelli V. V. & Sevim V. (2015) Problem posing as reformulation and sense-making within problem solving. In: Singer F. M., Ellerton N. F. & Cai J. (eds.) Mathematical problem posing: From research to effective practice. Springer, New York NY: 177–194. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Dyer F. & Commerford T. M. (1910) Edison: His life and inventions. Volume 2. Harper & Brothers, New York. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Ekdahl D. (2022) Both physical and virtual: On immediacy in esports. Frontiers in Sports and Active Living 4: 883765. https://doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2022.883765
Foerster H. von (2003) Responsibilities of competence. In: Understanding understanding: Essays on cybernetics and cognition. Springer-Verlag, New York: 191–197. Originally published in 1972. https://cepa.info/1646
Gijselaers W. H. (1996) Connecting problem-based practices with educational theory. New Directions for Teaching and Learning 1996(68): 13–21. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Glasersfeld E. von (1991) Abstraction, re-presentation, and reflection. In: Steffe L. P. (ed.) Epistemological foundations of mathematical experience. Springer-Verlag, New York: 45–67. https://cepa.info/1418
Ishiyama S. & Brecht M. (2016) Neural correlates of ticklishness in the rat somatosensory cortex. Science 354(6313): 757–760. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Jarry A. (1996) Exploits and opinions of Dr. Faustroll, Pataphysician: A neo-scientific novel. Exact Change, Boston. French original published in 1911. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Johnson M. (1987) The body in the mind: The bodily basis of meaning, imagination, and reason. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Karlqvist A. (1999) Going beyond disciplines: The meanings of interdisciplinarity. Policy Sciences 32(4): 379–383. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Kennedy R. S., Dutton B., Ricard G. L. & Frank L. H. (1984) Simulator sickness: A survey of flight simulators for the navy. SAE Transactions 93: 658–666. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Kirsh D. & Maglio P. (1994) On distinguishing epistemic from pragmatic action. Cognitive Science 18(4): 513–549. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Lakoff G. & Johnson M. (1999) Philosophy in the flesh: The embodied mind and its challenge to Western thought. Basic Books, New York. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Liu J., Esmail F., Li L., Kou Z., Li W., Gao X., Wang Z., Tan C., Zhang Y. & Zhou S., (2013) Decreased frontal lobe function in people with Internet addiction disorder. Neural Regeneration Research 8(34): 3225–3232. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Maturana H. R. (1980) Biology of cognition. In: Maturana H. R. & Varela F. J., Autopoiesis and cognition: The realization of the living. Reidel, Dordrecht. Originally published in 1970. https://cepa.info/535
Mori M. (2012) The uncanny valley (from the field). Translated by Karl F. MacDorman and Norri Kageki. IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine 19(2): 98–100. Japanese original published in 1970. https://doi.org/10.1109/MRA.2012.2192811
Myers N. & Dumit J. (2011) Haptics: Creativity and the mid-embodiments of experimental life. In: Mascia-Lees F. E. (ed.) A companion to the anthropology of the body and embodiment. Blackwell, London: 239–261. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Pan N., Yang Y., Du X., Qi X., Du G., Zhang Y., Li X. & Zhang Q. (2018) Brain structures associated with internet addiction tendency in adolescent online game players. Frontiers in Psychiatry 9: 67. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00067
Penny S. (1992) Virtual reality as the end of the enlightenment project. In: Bender G. & Druckrey T. (eds.) Culture on the brink: The ideologies of technology. Van Nostrand, New York: 231–249. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Penny S. (2009) Desire for virtual space: The technological imaginary in 1990s media art. In: Brezjek T. (ed.) Space and desire anthology. Zürcher Hochschule der Künste (ZHdK), Zurich: 168–181. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Penny S. (2021) Sensorimotor debilities in digital cultures. AI & Society 37(1): 355–366. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Pias C. (ed.) (2004) Cybernetics – Kybernetik: The Macy conferences 1946–1953. Diaphanes, Zurich. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Pickering A. (1995) The mangle of practice: Time, agency, and science. University of Chicago Press, Chicago IL. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Pickering A. (2023) Wicked problems and the cybernetic method. In: Jensen P. & Li Vigni F. (eds.) Critical studies of complexity: Theories, notions, translations and normativity. Editions Matériologiques, Paris. In press. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Proulx J. & Maheux J.-F. (2017) From problem solving to problem posing, and from strategies to laying down a path in solving: Taking Varela’s ideas to mathematics education research. Constructivist Foundations 13(1): 160–167. https://constructivist.info/13/1/160
Ryle G. (1946) The concept of mind. Barnes and Noble, New York. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Salimi Z. & Ferguson-Pell M. W. (2021) Motion sickness and sense of presence in a virtual reality environment developed for manual wheelchair users, with three different approaches. PloS One 16(8):E0255898. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0255898
Savery J. R. & Duffy T. M. (1995) Problem based learning: An instructional model and its constructivist framework. Educational Technology 35(5): 31–38. https://cepa.info/4713
Seberger J. S., Shklovski I., Swiatek E. & Patil S. (2022) Still creepy after all these years: The normalization of affective discomfort in app use. In: Proceedings of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’22) ACM, New York: Article 159. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Shakespeare W. (1603) The tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Nicholas Ling & John Trundell, London. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Twenge J. M., Joiner T. E., Rogers M. L. & Martin G. N. (2018) Increases in depressive symptoms, suicide-related outcomes, and suicide rates among US adolescents after 2010 and links to increased new media screen time. Clinical Psychological Science 6(1): 3–17. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Vallée-Tourangeau F., Ross W., Ruffatto Rech R. & Vallée-Tourangeau G. (2021) Insight as discovery. Journal of Cognitive Psychology 33(6–7): 718–737. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Videla-Reyes R. & Aguayo C. (2022) Pedagogy of uncertainty: Laying down a path in walking with STEAM. Pacific Journal of Technology Enhanced Learning 4(1): 29–30. https://doi.org/10.24135/pjtel.v4i1.147

Comments: 0

To stay informed about comments to this publication and post comments yourself, please log in first.