Dall’Alba & Barnacle

Embodied Knowing in Online Environments

By Gloria Dall’Alba & Robyn Barnacle

Summary

The authors of this article use a phenomenological perspective to analyze the idea of embodied knowing as it relates to the human-technology relationships which are experienced in online learning environments. The authors argue against the traditional belief that the mind and body are disassociated from one another by suggesting that “knowing can be embodied, or lived” (p. 722).

Information Communication Technology (ICT) in higher education

The authors suggest that technology in itself is not changing teaching, but that teachers themselves are taking on the challenge of using ICT’s to promote learning and to enable students to learn about their (ICT’s) use. In other words, teachers are creatively using ICT’s to enhance students’ learning (p. 729).  ICT’s are known to provide solutions to several of the challenges which arise within higher education, but it should be noted that in most cases they cannot be more responsive to students’ needs than a human teacher/instructor.

Embodied Knowing and Technology

The term “embodied knowing”, as used in this article, suggests that knowledge is acquired through the experiences of the body and senses and is internalized. It could be contextualized as “conceptual knowledge”. Through their design and application, ICT’s give individual perspectives of the world, “promoting particular ways of being and relations between ourselves and things”(p. 733).

In the following video clip, Professor Hubert Dreyfus introduces the key points of founders of phenomenology (Husserl and Heidegger). At about the mid point of the clip, Dreyfus summarizes Husserl’s main ideas: minds are always directed to objects (something outside of the mind).

Conclusions

The authors conclude that, in the design of online curriculum, educators need to recognize the nature of human-technology relations and how they are affected by the practices and limitations of ICT’s in online education and learning (p. 740).

Dall’Alba, G. and Barnacle, R. (2005). Embodied Knowing in Online Environments.  Educational Philosophy and Theory, 37(5), 719-744.