Although the past years have witnessed a surge in ‘online learning,’ the phenomenon of putting learning ‘online’ is far from new. It is part of a much longer history in which new technologies make their way into educational practices, sometimes to the benefit of such practices, but often as a potential or actual distortion. In this presentation Gert Biesta will explore what ‘online’ actually means, because the phrase ‘digital’ doesn’t speak in sufficient detail about what is different from other, more common educational practices. But the bigger concern is not so much about the ‘online’ as it is about the reduction of education to learning. Expanding on the concept of ‘Learning’ introduced in Seminar 1, Gert Biesta will address the ongoing ‘learnification’ of education in order to ask what educational, rather than learning possibilities, there are for anything that occurs ‘online.’

This seminar is part of the FAST45 SEMINAR SERIES: PEDAGOGICAL LIFE AND THE DIGITAL UNIVERSITY OF THE ARTS. The series explores particular forms and aspects of pedagogical life that may inform or instruct our imagination on the concept of the learning platform. As a contemporary pedagogical form that connects physical and virtual learning communities, the learning platform is increasingly being aligned with corporate training and workplace learning models. In this seminar series we want to expand on these tensions, towards an open discussion on other possibilities within technological forms of education.

The programme will be run through the FAST45 Learning Platform over 7 x 1.5 hr sessions. Each session will be led by a key thinker on education and technology. As suggested by Roland Barthes, the seminar is an open-ended, relational space that connects ‘institution, transference, and text’. In the spirit of Barthes seminar, we ask that participants attend each session of the series in order to commit to this relational dynamic and partake in an ongoing dialogue.