Posthumanism and the Massive Open Online Course critiques the problematic reliance on humanism that pervades online education and the MOOC, and explores theoretical frameworks that look beyond these limitations. While MOOCs (massive open online courses) have attracted significant academic and media attention, critical analyses of their development have been rare. Following an overview of MOOCs and their corporate means of promotion, this book unravels the tendencies in research and theory that continue to adopt normative views of user access, participation, and educational space in order to offer alternatives to the dominant understandings of community and authenticity in education.
Author(s): Jeremy Knox
Edition: First
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2016
Language: English
Pages: 233
City: New York
Tags: education, posthumanism, massive open online course (mooc), humanism, critical posthumanism, new materialism, anti-humanism, educational dualisms, colonialism, corporate moocs, mooc platform, mooc communities, connectivism, personal learning network, individualism, connectivist moocs, housing, space and place, modpo, american poetry, mobilities theory, power, mooc pedagogy, edcmooc, e-learning, digital culture, affect theory, cognitivism, autonomy, campus envy, behaviorism, cybernetics, coursera
Cover
Title
Copyright
Dedication
CONTENTS
List of Figures
Preface
Introduction
The Massive Open Online Course
MOOC Structures
MOOC Reactions: Disrupting and ‘Making Sense’
1 (Post)Humanism and Education
Introduction
Humanism
Humanism and Education
Critical Posthumanism
New Materialism
Rethinking Educational Dualisms
Posthuman Knowledge and the (Non)Representational
Conclusions
2 Masters of the Universal: MOOC Education and the Globe
Introduction
Humanism and Colonialism
The Corporate World of the MOOC
World-leaning MOOC Research
The MOOC Platform
Conclusions
3 Colonising Communities and Domesticating Data
Introduction
Immunising Communities and the Anthropological Machine
Measuring MOOC Communities
Identifying Participants and Categorising Participation
Connectivism and Community
Lurking and the Tyranny of Participation
The Personal Learning Network
Individualism in the Connectivist MOOC
Conclusions
4 Housing the MOOC: Space and Place in ‘ModPo’
Introduction
Modern and Contemporary American Poetry
Spatiality and Mobilities Theory
The House of Possibility
The Kelly Writers House Tour
Other Voices, Other Rooms: Power and Potency in the ModPo Fora
The Immutable Mobile of MOOC Pedagogy
Conclusions
5 Monstrous Openings in the EDCMOOC
Introduction
The E-learning and Digital Cultures MOOC
The Monstrous
Outside of Bounded Educational Space
Calls for Cohesive Community
Outside of the Humanist Subject
Conclusions
Conclusion
Summarising Posthumanism and the MOOC
Suggestions for MOOC Practice, Pedagogy, and Research
In Closing
Index
