Dis/Connected
In the posthuman era, this professor rediscovers herself as a cyborg
My encounter with the pandemic and the resulting lockdown got me thinking:
How could a tiny virus, invisible to the naked eye, so greatly influence the functioning of our society?
As a professor, I have seen drastic changes to our education system in just a short amount of time, all because of this ravaging virus.
Human beings are no longer superior. We are in the age of posthumanism.
In simple terms, posthumanism refers to the place of human beings in society. The posthuman exists in a space between humans and non-humans.
In the age of technology, to be a human means to have a mechanical extension of the human body — a mobile phone, a computer, or even headphones. The availability of a number of different gadgets, which help us to function, has changed the very nature of our interactions.
The teaching-learning process has undergone an enormous transition in less than a decade. As a student I grew up with the “chalk and talk” method. By the time I became a professor, I was expected to be technologically fluent in the classroom.
Now, with the lockdown in place, I have no choice. The only way I can stay in touch with my students is through a virtual platform.
Students used to depend on their teachers for knowledge. Today, cyberspace provides access to endless information.
This fact has influenced the entire structure of our education system. A teacher must now enable students to critically evaluate the information that they encounter. The students themselves must be digitally literate.
Literate to digitally literate
Of course, technology has transformed more than just education. It has touched every aspect of our society, from the socio-political to the literary.
The humanities are dedicated to documenting and analyzing society from within the context of a technology driven lifestyle. In order to stay relevant, the humanities must incorporate technology into its pedagogy.
I belong to a generation who experienced the transition from literacy to digital literacy. In a networked society like today, not being proficient in the use of digital tools is highly detrimental.
This has become more apparent in the last few months, as we have been fighting the spread of the Coronavirus.
As the lockdown continues, the classroom no longer has four walls. The classroom is a virtual platform, unrestricted by the boundaries of time and space.
Smart technology has captured the sphere of human interaction almost entirely. Space is no longer tied to place.
A virtual self can be easily projected from one end of the world to the other, across borders and time zones. Our individualistic society has been restructured to form a culture of collaborative production and consumption.
The fear of the Coronavirus has created a sudden transition in the education system to technology-enabled learning. We need to access a variety of media in order to learn.
The increased importance of digital learning in the present context of the pandemic has made this form of learning the “new normal.” In a post-pandemic world, two of the most important words associated with digital learning are “asynchronous” and “collaborative”.
I can now record a lecture or meet my students in real time. It depends entirely on how the student decides to approach the learning process.
During the lockdown, I asked a few students to visit the online exhibitions at the Louvre and other art museums. This was possible only because greater developments are taking place with respect to the use of virtual platforms.
Conducting classes via online platforms has become the new normal.
Digital learning encourages flexibility and accessibility. Nevertheless, students need access to the internet. This creates a fundamental problem as it increases the digital divide, which persists in areas all over the world. In the absence of a good network connection, learners cannot connect with teachers or vice versa.
In such a scenario, the question arises:
What happens to learners or teachers who aren’t part of the network?
Quite simply, they lose out on the teaching-learning experience of the new era.
Apart from the problem arising from the lack of a properly functioning network, I also feel a kind of disconnect with my students. I do not always get to see the students while conducting my classes online. Most often than not, due to poor network quality, the students are forced to keep their videos turned off.
So I find myself lecturing to blank virtual spaces — to profile pictures that look at me through unblinking eyes.
As human beings, we have always differentiated ourselves from other species by virtue of our ability to perform complicated speech acts and to put our intelligence to good use. Now this notion of human exceptionalism must be discarded because our bodies are no longer singular complete entities.
The body is comprised of millions of cells and organisms which form a network. Humans are not separate from their surroundings; they share an intrinsic bond with nature. Ecology has become more relevant than ever in the twenty first century.
Posthumanism deals with the vanishing boundaries between the human and the non-human. Posthumanism is closely connected to postmodernism, which is characterized by the absence of grand narratives. There is no single truth but multiple connected truths.
Similarly, there is no simple type of human. Heterogeneity marks the functioning of twenty first century society. The Cyborg is the quintessential posthuman hybrid.
Nature, man and machine are intrinsically connected in the present era. The manner in which humans interact with one other, and with the ecosystem, greatly depends on the dichotomy between health and ill health. We exploit technology in order to reflect our attitudes towards nature and disease.
The spread of the Covid-19 virus has directly influenced our interactions with nature, the environment and machines. Our dependency on computer technology has grown manifold due to the global spread of the Coronavirus.
Every aspect of human life has been affected by the infectious nature of this virus.
The birth of the “cyborg” teacher
My first encounter with a cyborg was in the movie The Terminator (1984). To see a metallic robotic body wrapped in human skin was quite disorienting.
The more that I depend on my computer, mobile phone or the internet, the more I view myself as a cyborg. The technological tools that I use have become an extension of my body and self.
Teachers are no longer separate from the technology that they employ in their classrooms.
A teacher who speaks from behind a computer screen inhabits a virtual space, thereby making the distinction between man and machine less visible.
A name and profile photo become the marker for the presence of a teacher. Similarly, the learner hides behind a virtual self. This tendency to disguise ourselves while performing the role of teachers and learners creates a sense of disjointedness.
On the one hand, we are more connected to one another. On the other hand, the interaction between our virtual selves furthers the gap between our true selves.
In keeping with the spread of digital learning technology, teachers are reborn as cyborgs — a hybrid of the physical self and mechanical extensions.
What lies ahead?
We are all looking forward to a post-Coronavirus era. We know that nothing will be the same anymore. The age of posthumanism is upon us.
Virtual space is now indispensable to the teaching and learning process. We are no longer individuals inhabiting singular spaces. Man, animal and machine have come together as one.
This transition obviously makes education more flexible and achievable, but the question still remains:
Are we ready for it?
I have rediscovered myself as a posthuman hybrid. In this new era, I think we all will.
