"Becoming" Wireless

Matt's comments on the importance of informal learning and the ways in which it might impact formal learning led me to consider Heidegger's ideas, as expressed in Dall' Alba (2009), and their possible application to the study of adolescents in the era of ubiquitous wi fi.

The point that Heidegger makes - and thank goodness for Dall 'Alba's clear, accessible interpretation of his dense prose - is that becoming a professional involves "transformation of the self through embodying the routines and traditions of the profession in question" (Dall'Alba, 2009). She argues that faculties of education should switch their focus from epistemology - steering people toward thinking like teachers - to ontology - forming the very essence of people INTO teachers.

There's a link between this and my proposed thesis research, in which I

intend to study the ways in which today's wireless youth encounter and experience live theatre. Thanks to this week's readings, I see that there is an ontological aspect to this. A key question at the root of my question is, "How has being raised in the wireless era helped to form young people? What are they like? How do they BE?"

Theatre is an ancient cultural tradition, formed in the pre-Internet world and perhaps, now, struggling to keep itself relevant. When you take someone whose ontological being has been formed by the wizards at Apple and place her in front of a play written to be cutting edge in 1605, what happens?

Her physical position in the theatre suggests, as Merleau-Ponty writes (in Dall'Alba, 2009) that 'The body is the vehicle for being in the world" (p. 37). But if she has an eye on her iPhone during the performance, her body is in the theatre but her mind is somewhere else - partially in the theatre, partially attending to other matters. This would confirm his assertion that "ambiguity is of the essence of human existence, and everything we live or think has several meanings" (Merleau-Ponty, in Dall'Alba, 2009) .

What kind of person does an immersion in the pleasures of the Internet form? My guess is that, by looking at the encounter between her and the live play, I can begin to posit some answers.

One more thing. Lincoln and Guba (2000) describe how foundationalists see that ways of defining reality are rooted in phenomena existing out side the human mind (p. 176). Critical foundationalists like Marxists look at those underlying power structures and see the cause of oppression, inequality and marginalization (p. 177). I would be very interested to know - and would be delighted if anyone could point me in the right direction - what work has been done on the ontological question of how growing wireless shapes being. What are the foundations that define the adolescent's wireless world? Who shapes them? In whose interest are they formed?

A critical examination of the power structures that shape the very core being of our young people, and a consideration of who is winning and losing in that massive effort - could be a useful contribution to our understanding of our student's lives and an insight into how culture is changing in response.