Virtual Proximity: Peer-Learning within Self-Reflective Networks

Description

Younger generations—although have grown immersed in technology—are passive consumers, as opposed to producers, of technology; however, there is an expectation that these students thrive in virtual environments because of their “digital-native” nature, a social construct that has proven wrong in the past few years. Furthermore, transferring curriculum and teaching styles from onsite to online learning spaces perpetuates unilateral knowledge exchange from instructor to students. This tension amongst motivation, expectations, and desires discourages students and elevates anxiety. Using a case study—a hybrid course that I co-taught for the Parsons Pre-College Program, I will address ways in which process, documentation, self-reflection, and networking are integrated into a practice that strengthens personal voice, and social identity hence anxiety lowers.

Takeaway

My paper presentation will showcase a transferable framework that enables students to build self-confidence and a grounded digital identity in virtual spaces through peer-to-peer learning, self-reflection, and expanded networks. Attendees would be able to adapt this model to their own virtual classrooms by pairing an array of open-source platforms to e-classroom practices (process, documentation, self-reflection, and networking).

Abstract

The social construct of “digital natives and immigrants” hinders the e-learning experience in that it sets its constituents to failure in virtual spaces; for the former, there is a expectation of success because of an illusion of familiarity with the tools; for the latter, there is the challenge to understand tools that are assumed to be foreign to them. In either case, native or immigrant, anxiety builds up, from the start, in these virtual spaces. When developing e-learning environments, these assumptions need to be swept away, and a culture of inclusion has to be fostered. Virtual spaces that empower learners to transform, adapt, and inscribe soft/open source technologies, would potentially help shape social identities from within, as opposed to being controlled from external trades of consumption; part of this anxiety arises from being consumers of technology, in an era of information flows that shapes, and re-shapes, our online social identities.

Rather than divide, we should instead nurture global-virtual identities, of the digital cosmopolitan. A sense of agency is paramount in creating a sense of self in virtual spaces, specially one who carries him/herself with ethics, responsibility, and transparency, and abides by a moral code. When virtual identities are constructed in a conscious way, from the side of power—of a subject with agency, as opposed to a powerless object—the discourse shifts. Because anxiety heightens when we feel a loss of control—over our privacy, exposure, and an everlasting digital footprint—we need to create a form of a curated-self, of the professional yet genuine self. In this presentation I will share a case study—a hybrid course called PORTFOLIO that I co-taught for the Parsons Pre-College Program—in which students were more opened to online interactions than face-to-face meet ups. Also, anxiety arose during the first weeks of the course but slowly decreased as students found their voice, and were able to channel their point of view, passion, and love for their craft, through their productions; in a public forum, having peers, and people they admire and to whom they look-up—a growing-live network—reblog, like, and comment on their work, encouraged them to do better; seeing all process documented, through images, self-reflections, and final pieces, helped students become more self-reflective, have a deeper understanding of their process/progress, and celebrate their growth. These e-learning spaces are full of potential to level the playing field and lower anxieties by building diversity, opening-up access, and fostering a culture of inclusion and digital literacy in expansive networks.

Keywords: digital cosmopolitan, open source technologies, peer-learning, soft technologies