Discussions

Please answer at least 1 discussion question from each section found below.  Post your responses in the Module 8 Forum found in Connect within the appropriate threads.

Part 1 – Turkle and the Virtual Persona

Question #1: Do you have an online persona? More than one? How is your persona different from who you are? How is it the same?

Consider Turkle’s own discussion question concerning the idea of our digital virtual persona, “What does my behavior in cyberspace tell me about what I want, who I am, what I may not be getting in the rest of my life?”

 

Question #2: In her recent work, Sherry Turkle emphasizes that while she embraces what technology can do for us, she is deeply concerned about what it is doing to us.  She feels we need to put technology in its place – to set boundaries for its use, to avoid being used by it.

Are you concerned with how your use of technology is impacting your life?  Beyond embracing S.O.U.L. in this course, in what ways are you setting boundaries or critically thinking about the influences of technology on your life?

Part 2 – Dall’Alba and Barnacle and Embodied Knowing

Question #1: Explain what “embodied knowing” means to you.  Do you feel that it is possible to achieve through online learning?  Have you experienced “embodied knowing” in your MET courses?  If yes, how so?

Question #2:  In the conclusion of the article it is suggested that additional multi-sensory non-visual elements should be incorporated into the curriculum design of online learning.  Give examples and explain how they will meet the needs of online learners.

Part 3 – Activity Theory

Question #1: “AT emphasizes tool-mediated action.  Human beings not only act on their environment with tools, they also think and learn with tools.  Tools are materials and are “external” such as hammers, books and computers.  But we humans also fashion and use tools at a secondary or “internal” level—language, concepts, scripts, schemas, and genres. Both kinds of tools are used to act on the environment collectively” (Wartofsky, 1979).

If we are using tools to “act on the environment collectively,” is it even possible to use technology without having a collective impact? Is it desirable?

 Question #2: There is both a collective and individual aspect to the Activity Theory; in which ways can educational technology utilize these aspects to promote more meaningful learning?