Phenomenology in Action for Researching Networked Learning

This book champions phenomenology’s place in networked learning theory, research, and practice. The book illuminates and showcases something of the powerful richness, depth, and novel insights offered by phenomenological perspectives on human experience to invoke a fundamental rethinking of experience in networked learning. It also signals the broader learning technology community to acknowledge and engage with these perspectives. The editors and authors have collaborated to bring a renewed focus upon the human facet of networked learning. As our world becomes more digitally enmeshed, infiltrated, and contested, the need to investigate and convey, at maximum fidelity, the lived experience of learners, teachers, and other stakeholders in education becomes paramount. Through phenomenological inquiry, we disclose the complex dance between the human and the technical, spotlighting how individuals engage, navigate, and find meaning within virtual yet embodied landscapes. This approach suitably honours the complexity, profundity, and ethicality of human existence in our evolving digital ecologies. The first section, “Phenomenological Perspectives in Researching Networked Learning” lucidly explains phenomenology and some of its potential affordances. The second section, “Practising Phenomenological Research in Networked Learning”, explicates the tangible practice of phenomenological research into specific phenomena: chapters sample of a select range of studies that also indicate the kind of insights such research can bring to networked learning. The concluding section presents two chapters that denote novel and arresting, “Critical Phenomenological Perspectives on Networked Learning”. Together, these final chapters demonstrate the type of radical challenge that phenomenology can bring to the field, refreshing even networked learning’s most basic conceptions and practices. With this book, we open a space for anyone who wishes to join us in the wonderful, inspiring, and challenging application of phenomenology within the field of networked learning. Foreword Acknowledgments Contents About the Editors and Contributors Introducing Phenomenology in Action for Researching Networked Learning Introduction Background The Coming Into Being of hanfod.NL Situating the Book in Current Debates Book Overview Section I: Phenomenological Perspectives in Researching Networked Learning Section II: Practising Phenomenological Research in Networked Learning Section III: Critical Phenomenological Perspectives on Networked Learning References Section I Phenomenological Perspectives in Researching Networked Learning Networked Learning and Three Promises of Phenomenology Introduction Introducing Phenomenology A Conceptual Promise A Methodological Promise The Critical Promise Conclusion References Investigating the Background-Taking a Merleau-Pontian Phenomenological Approach to Networked Learning Introduction The Role of the Body in Perception ́s Figure-Background Structure Implications for Phenomenological Methodology Investigating Backgrounds of Figures Within Networked Learning The Figure of Eye Contact Via a Webcam The Figure of Hybrid Networked Learning Situations of Students Today Concluding Remarks References A Work of Art: Evocative Writing and Lived Experience Descriptions for Networked Learning Research Opening Writing in Qualitative Research as a Work of Art Writing in Real-Life Networked Learning Research: Purpose and Practice Autoethnography and Evocative Writing Phenomenology and Lived Experience Descriptions Evocative Writing Complemented by Lived Experience Descriptions A Scenario: Evocative Writing of Lived Networked Learning Experiences Problem Formulation Data Gathering Outcome Validation Closing Remarks References Doing Phenomenological Research into Being a Healthcare Student with a Mobile Phone Introduction Researching the Lived Experience of Mobile Phones in Academic Work The Contingent Ontologies of Hammer and Phone Phenomenology and Empirical Research Encountering Mobilage Mobilage Thinking Researcher-in-the-World Analysis for Re-presencing Through Vignettes Worked Example of a Vignette What Is Mobilage Learning Like? Noticing a Stray Glove Phenomenological Conclusions References Section II Practising Phenomenological Research in Networked Learning Embodied Individuals Navigating Virtual Spaces: Addressing Intersubjectivity and Alienation in Emergency Remote Teaching Durin... Introduction Intersubjectivity and Intercorporality The Virtual as Arising in Perception Reified Virtuality Alienating and Delimited Virtuality Online Teaching and Alienation The Problematics of Emergency Remote Teaching Conclusion References What Is it Like for a Learner to Participate in a Zoom Breakout Room Session? Introduction Literature Review Online Breakout Rooms as a Place for Learning Online Breakout Rooms as an Experience of Reluctance Online Breakout Rooms as Intentional Design Videoconferencing Experiences Methodology Exploring the Lived Experience of Learner Participation in the Context of Zoom Breakout Rooms: A Phenomenological Analysis A Learner May Hear the Announcement of a Zoom Breakout Room as an Inconvenient Interruption and Demand to Engage A Learner May Experience the Transition to a ZBR as Moment of Existential Suspension In a ZBR, a Learner May Find Themselves Preoccupied with the Appearance of Others (or of Themselves) Rather Than Engaged with ... As the ZBR Draws to a Close, an Engaging Discussion May Face Abrupt Foreclosure, Leading to a Perfunctory Ending That Thrusts ... A Networking Learning Perspective on Zoom Breakout Rooms Concluding Thoughts References Tomorrow ́s Networked Posthumans: Phenomenological Reflections on the Child and Artificial Intelligence Introduction Networked Learning and the Child Background AI, Children and Regulatory Policy ``What Is in a Child ́s Hand ́ ́ Today? Tomorrow ́s Posthumans and Networked Learning References Section III Critical Phenomenological Perspectives on Networked Learning Re-presencing the Network: A Phenomenological Paradigm for the Anthropocene The Network in Networked Learning: An Infrastructural Response to the Anthropocene Phenomenological Uncertainty Tracing ``Marks ́ ́ of the Anthropocene: Experiential Learning Design Pattern The Design Pattern Approach Re-presencing Marks Network Infrastructure Marks as Metaphor for Multi-level Discourse Decolonizing and Disautomatizing: Phenomenological `Moving Beyond ́ Beyond Use Patterns Patterns That Connect Traces to Follow and Extend Conclusion References Networked Learning, Teaching, and Normativity: A Phenomenological Deconstruction Learning and the Metonymic Fallacy ``Networked Learning: ́ ́ A Description or a Prescription? Phenomenology and Networked Learning Conclusion: Learning-as-Experience References Index