Postmodernism

I have chosen  “Educational Uses of Second Life” and “Ohio University Second Life Campus”.

 

Both of these videos show another way of education, a virtual reality in which students are immersed in their own education. Both videos show that universities are now turning into a different learning environment, like a paralell world in which students are the protagonists of video-game-like realities.

 

I could identify in both videos some postmodernist features. One of them could be the fact that postmodernism is associated with electronics and computers as the “means of production” which determines social practices. Knowledge is transformed by our reliance on computer technology. All knowledge must be digitalizable to be preserved: anything that is not digitalized will not be considered “knowledge” and will be excluded from our systems of data collection, organization and preservation.

This is reflected in the way universities are now turning their attention to digital education, as an attempt to include education in this cybernetic era.

 

I could also identify the “simulacra” feature in both videos. A silulacrum creates a passive subject who takes the simulation as the only necessary reality. I think that by creating another reality, the Universities that have chosen to relly on this kind of simulacrum of their campus may be leading their students to take a passive attitude towards reality, the fact that students can actually “walk” and visit different places virtually dont create a need for them to actually interact in their real life situations.