The Future of Education

Edition 15

Accepted Abstracts

The Corporeality and Hyperreality of the Student Telepresence Robot – on the Digitalisation of Teacher Education

Niclas Ekberg, Luleå University of Technology (Sweden)

Eva Alerby, Luleå University of Technology (Sweden)

Abstract

In Sweden, as in many other countries in the world, there has been a massive shift in (higher) education towards distance education and online teaching. In the midst of this, some universities introduce and use remote-controlled devices, for example telepresence robots and iCubes. Both these devices provide a virtual presence – or a bodiless presence – to, for example, a remote student who cannot physically attend the classroom [1]. However, although these telepresence robots are gaining a growing foothold in higher education, there is a lack of research on the significance of telepresence robots in education [2]. The overall aim and contribution of this paper is therefore to explore dimensions of corporeality and hyperreality in digitalised education. More specifically, the focus will be on the research question – how can embodiment and presence be understood when the students are situated, and their participation are mediated, through remote-controlled devices? This overarching question harbours a variety of challenging aspects concerning, for example, the distribution of agency and roles. Does the machine merely become an instrument or does the student embody the robot in a more immersive way? [3] Who controls whom and in what senses? The philosophies of Maurice Merleau-Ponty [4] and Martin Heidegger [5] will provide entries for an ontological understanding of the relational and spatio-temporal aspects of presence and interaction in digitalised education. These philosopical perspctives will be infused with a postphenomenological approach, advocated by Don Ihde [6] who opens up for a phenomenological materialist view which emphasises how “our contemporary technologies actually embody or re-embody our fleshly experience in new ways, in interactive ways” (p.iii). A narrative – in form of a paradigmatic case – of a lesson at a Nordic university will serve as the starting point for the discussion in order to illustrate and relate the philosophical exploration in the paper with a typical classroom situation on campus and online.

Keywords

digitalised education, corporeality, hyperreality, telepresence, postphenomenology

 

References

[1] Alerby, E., Ekberg, N. & Johansson, M. (2021). ‘I miss the physical presence of the students’: Swedish teachers’ experiences of online teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Education in the North, 28(3) pp. 100-120.

[2] Page, A., Charteris, J., & Berman, J. (2021). Telepresence Robot Use for Children with Chronic Illness in Australian Schools: A Scoping Review and Thematic Analysis. International Journal of Social Robotics, 13(6), 1281–1293.

[3] Kristoffersson, A., Coradeschi, S., & Loutfi, A. (2013). A review of mobile robotic telepresence. ExCITE Advances in Human-Computer Interaction, 2013, 902316.

[4] Merleau-Ponty, M. (1996). Phenomenology of perception. London: Routledge.

[5] Heidegger, M. (2001). Being and time. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.

[6] Ihde, D. (2010). Embodied Technics. Automatic Press.

 

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