Journal of Academic Development and Education JADE Issue 8 | Page 14
14 | JADE
ARTICLE #1 | 15
PHILIP DEVINE
of a sequential ordering of thought. It is clear that the educator,
whether lecturer, librarian, technologist etc., is, in part, responsible
for developing those pedagogical experiential phenomena in the
digital domain, and the critical design of aesthetic experience in
‘Interconnected Motions’ (Dunne and Raby, 2005). This indicates that
the logo of educator, embedded within the logo of the institution,
anchors cohort learning and teaching, and begins to map pedagogy,
curriculum, learning and teaching, and (hypothetically) behavioural
models. If I accept that logo, related to icon and iconography, can be
designed to extend the presence of the educator (which in distance
learning is a much needed progression), and pursue an educator’s
idealised cohort learning outcomes. I can then see no reason why an
educator’s logo/icon (knowledge, passions and personalities) cannot
be acquired as representation of learning objects (information) to
guide student subjective experience of learning objects, towards
expected learning outcomes, and beyond. Cultivation of individuals,
and idealised experience, in icon and iconography very much relates
to an enlightenment of a sort, a religious enlightenment, a pathway,
guidance or teachings that transcend matter (Pederson, 2010;
Edwards, 2010). I would suggest that the agency of objectification
of information in the digital domain (in the service of learning and
teaching) resides in these same properties, properties that separate
matter from meaning, and enhance meaning to identify potential in
the student and connectivity of subjective (idealised) experience.
That subjective experience may be located within the objectification
of information in the digital domain, or the intellect of the individual,
both in real terms being the same, an objectification of information.
This increases the potential for experimentation in critical thinking
(physico psychical organisation) that relates to the rejection of
representation by objects in the service of the creation of new ideas
made concrete in objects.
Conclusion
This aim of this paper has been to begin to explore, and uncover
evidence of agency and mythology in the objectification of
information in culture and learning within the digital domain, relating
to “Cognisphere” (Hayles, 2006). I have explored the nature of the
objectification of information, theoretically, through the writings
of Hayles, Simmel, Berger, Edwards, Dunne and Raby, etc., and
practically by an (minimal) interrogation of empirical data taken
from #edcmooc Twitter feed (01.02.13, time period 17:00 to 18:00). In
conclusion I would suggest that this ‘minimal’ investigation warrants
further attention, and that agency in the objectification of information
to enhance pedagogy in digital education, lies (in part) in a critical
design of idealised (aesthetic) experience in ‘Interconnected Motions’
INTERCONNECTED MOTIONS:
AGENCY OF INFORMATION IN CULTURE & LEARNING (VIRTUAL MYTHOLOGY)
(Dunne and Raby, 2005). This creates a virtual mythology that
could be seen to perpetuate idealised experience, possibly resulting
in ‘Theta State’, where Theta State is identified as the gateway to
learning and memory.
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