The embodiment of the online learner

Abstract

This paper considers the significance of embodiment – the ways in which its meaning is shifted by our immersion in the classrooms of cyberspace, and the various strands of cultural theory which can help us conceive of new ways of working with the shifted forms of embodiment learners and teachers experience when they go online. The discussion in the paper is organised into two strands. The first is concerned with the mind body split and the way in which this dualism is being challenged in contemporary theory and in the online classroom. The second focuses around the theory of the posthuman, considering the ways in which the body is ‘rearticulated’ by our increasingly intimate relationship with the machinic, and the effect of such re-articulation on the experience of online learners. The paper draws on a review of relevant aspects of cultural theory, and on interviews undertaken with learners. It ends with a brief indication of how the two strands identified might carry through into particular pedagogical approaches