Student collaboration as spatial entanglements of Bildung in Virtual Learning Environments.

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Abstract

Charlotta Hilli, Åbo Akademi University

This paper investigates entanglements of space and student online collaboration to understand processes of ​Bildung.​ It is theoretically informed by posthuman ​Bildung that studies entanglements of doings/knowledge/spaces. ​Bildung is a German concept changing with time and it is found around the world under different names (Horlacher, 2016). ​Bildung is a never ending personal process - open, reflective, intellectual, and moral - interlinked with culture, other people, and efforts for a better world (Uljens, 2003). Most researchers agree ​Bildung ​is a transformative process where the I/the Self meets the Other, which can be, other people, texts, materials that make the I/the Self expand and reach new levels of reflections (Wiberg, 2018). Carol Taylor (2017) suggests posthumanist ​Bildung offers analytic tools to understand the entanglements of being/knowing/doing. Taylor (2017, p. 428) argues that “all learning is spatially located—it happens somewhere—and that somewhere is an intimate if unspoken and unacknowledged part of our bodily experience of education.” The space for learning has agency in a posthuman sense.
The case discussed is an online course in higher education. The design of the learning space is an important material-discursive practice to consider (Barad, 2007). In distance education, the online space can offer interfaces for transformations of ​Bildung​. There are also issues of disconnections that need to be considered when participants only meet asynchronously online. Delayed written communication challenged the participants to cognitively and ethically consider the course content and the group members. The design of the learning space was entangled with a risk of information overload and feelings of confusion or frustration among participants. Entanglements of being/knowing/doing are ways to understand online collaboration as deeply entwined with the space for learning.

References:
Barad, K. (2007). ​Meeting the Universe Halfway. Quantum physics and the entanglement of matter and meaning.​ Durham: Duke University Press.
Horlacher, R. (2016). ​The Educated Subject and the German Concept of Bildung. A Comparative Cultural History.​ Oxon: Routledge.
Taylor, C. A. (2017). Is a posthumanist Bildung possible? Reclaiming the promise of Bildung for contemporary higher education. ​Higher Education​, 74 (3), 419–435. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-016-9994-y

Uljens, M. (2003). The Idea of a Universal Theory of Education - and Impossible but Necessary Project? In L. Løvlie, K. P. Mortensen and S.E. Nordenbo (Eds.), ​Educating Humanity. Bildung in Postmodernity (pp. 37–59). Malden, USA: Blackwell Publishing.
Wiberg, M. (2018). Den teoretiske pædagogiks bidrag til empirisk forskning i dannelse: kan man forske i dannelse? In A. von Oettingen (Ed.), ​Empirisk dannelsesforskning : mellem teori, empiri og praksis​ (pp. 69–89). Hans Reitzels Forlag: København.

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Funded by Gustaf Packaléns Mindefond

Period	7 Oct 2020
Event title	Posthumanism 2020
Event type	Conference
Location	Aarhus, DenmarkShow on map