Summary: Embodied Knowing in Online Environments

Embodied Knowing in Online Environment

Gloria Dall’Alba and Robyn Barnacle

The article uses phenomenology to examine current epistemology, claiming that higher education does not necessarily contextualize knowledge towards the circumstances for which it is ultimately intended.  For example, a prospective physician requires more than the standard medical knowledge in the professional world, such as how to interact with people, technology, and environments outside of the learning milieu. 

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The argument the authors make is that knowledge is not only a process of the mind but it is embodied, a part of perception and interaction. This perspective, they claim, should be considered in the higher education curriculum and in the use of new technologies for specific programs.

Embodied Knowing

The Cartesian method is based on Descartes’ claim that a person is a “thinking thing” first and foremost.  There would be, therefore, no significant connection between the mind and body.  More recently, the Empiricist model included the body in a very rudimentary way, asserting the brain’s responses are based on the transmission of perceived data.

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Phenomenologists challenge the “logic of the Cartesian mind-body, or subject-object, dichotomy” (p724), and support the body and mind as one, a multi-functional conduit for knowledge through intention and perception.  This embodiment of knowledge is further supported by the Santiago Theory of Cognition, a scientific theory that defines mental processes as an extension of biological processes.

Decontextualization in Conventional Higher Education Programs

Dall’Alba and Barnacle contend that conventional academic practices in undergraduate programs adopt an educational design for the accumulation of knowledge but not necessarily the acquisition of skills.  This compartmentalization of information and skill acquisition decontextualizes knowledge and problematizes critical thinking and self-reflection.  As the article states, “development of the mind is seen as having primary importance at the expense of development of the person.” (p721)

Current Use of New Technologies in Higher Education

Productive approaches to learning online are fundamentally the same as those in any learning environment.  Educators generally adopt similar techniques, require parallel conditions, and strive for equivalent results.

The Essentials

These essential online features for learning, supplied by Marion Coomey and John Stephenson, are appropriate across most educational platforms.

• Incorporation of dialogue
• Active involvement of learners with learning materials or activities
• Provision of support
• Enabling learners to take appropriate control over their learning

Online resources can facilitate teaching, allow access to more real life environments, and engage in broader connectivity, but digital courses can also be overly automated and superficial, simply promoting conventional pedagogies rather than transforming the educational experience.

Flew’s Clues

Flew suggests the use of new technologies should be evaluated using the Five P’s:

• Practical (costs, benefits, access)
• Pedagogical
• Policy (accreditation, quality)
• Personal (appropriate for learning)
• Philosophical (university’s position)

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Embodied Knowing and Technology

In human-technology relations, intention toward a certain goal embodies both the human and the technology as part of the process at hand.   The two entities become entwined, as a blind person with his cane or a driver with her car, etc.  The argument is that technology is not a simple tool but has the power to frame the way we see the world.  There are deficits to the human-technology relation, such as the inability to engage all the senses, but the main difficulty for pedagogy is that the relationship can be unpredictable.

Opportunities and Limits of ICT’s in Higher Education Programs

Determining what is an opportunity and what is a limitation in online learning is problematic, since the results are often based more on factors other than the technology.

• Teacher presence can be considered both a positive and a negative aspect of online education, since availability and support may vary.  While one teacher may make herself available to her students in a  face-to-face course, others may not. And, another teacher may spend more time with his students in an ICT capacity, while others may use the technology as an automation tool.
• Student presence can change the learning outcomes of a course, with ICT’s providing an opportunity to work with others globally, while on campus presence may situate the student in an academic community.  The barriers of work and distance are  diminished in one environment while the other offers an opportunity to explore the local culture.
• The enhancement of soft skills like communication and teamwork is available off and online, but these may be considered very different aptitudes, relevant to their specific environments.
• There are advantages to both synchronous and asynchronous communication used online and off.  While synchronous      interactions require spontaneous and decisive responses, asynchronous dialogue allows time for reflection.
• Anonymity can also be  both a positive and a negative factor in ICT’s.  While it can assist those who suffer from shyness and social difficulties, it also opens the door to malicious intent and rudeness without repercussions.
• Information can be more readily available online but the disadvantage can be the lack of filters like those one would encounter in a campus library.
• The online environment might actually encourage passivity and disembodiment.
• The online environment may be less prone to discrimination
• The online environment does not provide barriers for those with physical impairments, with the exception of blindness

Further Research

The authors suggest further research be done on the following:

• Human/technology interaction and its influence on learning
• The evolution of practices through human-technology relations in learning environments
• How different forms of student/teacher online presence impacts      the educational experience
• The impact of ICT’s on higher education
• How ICT’s either situate students in or exclude students from      various learning environments
• The potential significance of the anonymity afforded by ICT’s
• If online interactions are perceived as disembodied or not
• The degree to which a learner may access new worlds through      ICT’s
• How specific technologies may benefit certain local or wide-ranging learning frameworks