Technological Turns in Education: Virtual Space Challenge

Document Type : پژوهشی

Author

• Seyed Mahdi Sajjadi

Professor, Philosophy of Education, Department of Education, Tarbiat Modares University.

10.22067/fedu.2024.75779.1144

Abstract

Nowadays, virtual technology has left its impact on all the aspects and dimensions of human life. As with the emergence of traditional and industrial technologies in the past, people's ideas about many things, including lifestyles, production and productivity processes, work and labor systems, industrial and professional services, social relations and education, etc., have changed. Concepts have also undergone semantic and conceptual transformations. For example, the emergence of concepts such as cyber democracy, technological revolution, media literacy, digital enlightenment, digital identity, and... are also among the changes and transformations that have occurred under the influence of the emergence of new technologies. In this article, we will mention the consequences of the evolution of new technologies in the field of education and especially the turns that occur in education and training due to technological advances.
Keywords: Virtual Space, Challenges, Deterritorialization, Turn, Education, Pedagogy
 
Synopsis:
 The emergence of new technologies even by entering scientific categories has also created changes in the relevant fields, including the entry of technology into the realm of biology under the title of bio-technology and special attention to the human genome project and then explaining its implications regarding ethics and political considerations, as well as trying to solve problems caused by genetic disabilities in the matter of learning. With the advent of the computer, scientific work in the field of psychology has also changed, as with the presence of the computer, new models of mental and cognitive development and growth have emerged, which have generally transformed the processes and mechanisms and the content of mental development and transformation, as well as intelligence-based learning. The consequences of new technologies, especially the new information and communication technologies like Artificial Intelligence that have generally emerged in the form of virtual spaces, are considered a fundamental challenge for social, cultural, economic, and especially educational systems. This challenge can be considered negative and also positive. Why the aforementioned consequences are considered a positive challenge for some educational systems and a negative challenge for some educational systems is related to the philosophical, social, cultural, and ideological foundations governing those educational systems. This article seeks to propose the basic point that by accepting the inevitable presence of virtual space in the educational system, there will be a turn in the orientations, foundations, goals, and pedagogical processes of the educational system that this turn may be positive for some educational system or considered negative for some other educational system. These turns have a special challenging feature for the educational system that is mentioned in this article; including turning from technological education philosophy to technological philosophy of education, turning from striated space to smooth space, turning from tracing to mapping, and finally turning from vertical folding to horizontal, that each of them creates a different image of the flow of education.
It seems that what was said about the function of virtual space can be summarized in a general concept and that is deterritorialization, and this deterritorialization has a greater manifestation, especially in education. Because education itself includes a general spectrum of social and human life and in itself, it has almost everything that human and social life needs. It can be safely said that technology and virtual space are all the elements of education, including the foundations, goals, principles, methods, and mechanisms of educational evaluation, and in other words, mechanisms it has influenced the pedagogy. One of the most important consequences of technology and virtual space for education and training is deterritorialization in education. We are talking about a territory in which educational programs are supposed to be realized. This territory can be the same boundaries within which educational programs gain meaning. For this reason, any event that means removing the boundaries and if there is a defined gap in education is interpreted as a fundamental challenge for education.
Conclusion: New Technologies Creates New Face of Education
Addressing the consequences of the presence of new technologies in various fields of life, including education, is at the top of the efforts of thinkers in the field of technology and education. Today, technology is undoubtedly not an independent category of human identity but is an undeniable part of existence and human life. Although in the view of technology as a tool, it has been a man who has tried to use it as he sees fit and manage it as he likes. But today, technology is not only a mediator between man and the environment; it is the factor of creating concepts, decentralization of knowledge, digital enlightenment, and creating new experiences, identities, and new facts. In addition to the developmental aspect of technology, exploration is also one of the existential functions of technology. Creating new concepts in education, creating New environments, and new pedagogies, presenting a new definition of a person and his identity, combining technology with human behavior and personality, etc. are among the functions of new technology, which, with the turns it creates, transforms the traditional and metaphysical ideas of education into marginalized and creates a new and creative perspective for education that should be taken into consideration by education philosophers on the one hand and educational policymakers on the other hand.

Keywords

• Virtual Space
• Challenges
• Deterritorialization
• Turn
• Education
• Pedagogy

Main Subjects

• Educational Philosophy

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