AnalyticsEducationKnowledge

One of the topics that we should consider in the book is the number and kind of analytics that can be used, and how they are deployed. Analytics are one example of a "technology of the self" [Foucault]. Like all technologies, they come from and feed into a social context. Unlike other media (books, libraries, television, transportation systems), "analytics" provide a synchronous feedback mechanism. Interactive systems in general come with analytic features built in.

Educational systems tend to give feedback asynchronously (grades on each paper or at the end of each semester), wherein students are informed of the worthiness of their effort (A, B, C, D, F or other forms of stratification and measurement). Whether this is intended or not, schools play the role of county fair judge, stratifying students into "best", "worst", and "mediocre". The feedback that is given by schools has an effect not just on the learning process, but also on future career options. Schools both produce and measure "desirability" of students in the further education and job market.

If this causes anxiety among students (or for the reader), this may be part of the intended purpose. Formal learning isn't a matter of fun and games: it deals with "failure", "ability" and other high-intensity concerns of judgement. Informal learning may sidestep some of the judgement, but it cannot get away from the social pressures that are expressed through institutional learning (the requirement to become employable, and to become adapted to other social norms).

To summarize, learning is an adaptive process, typically featuring the learner as subject (adapting to the environment), but often undeniably positioning the learner as object (someone to be acted upon, changed, improved [Foucault]).

In paragogy, we would like to steer away from the objectifying aspects of the learning process. This means that we have to understand them well enough to move away from them. And we should do this in a way that doesn't damage (and hopefully enhances) the learner's adaptivity. It is not so much we abhor the stratifying aspects of education per se, rather, we question the efficiency of this system from the point of view of the student. Of course, it is nice to have a good transcript or diploma and to be recognized as employable (a sort of "secondary quality" that is abstracted from raw qualities) if indeed that comes to pass, but at least in some cases there may be other ways to go about the process of personal empowerment that work better (for the individual) than those catered for via "the system".

These might include: (1) information or knowledge transfer that takes place outside of scope, under the "radar", and beyond the analysis of formal educational institutions: here for example we consider the services provided by libraries and bookstores, where readers connect with writers without an evaluative intermediary.

This may branch out to several sub-categories: (1a) Topics that are "too new" to have been codified, for example, new technologies. (1b) Topics that are "too personal" to be interesting to many people, for example, the topics that are discussed in counseling or psychotherapy. (1c) Forbidden topics, perhaps religion or politics, depending on the context.

But here we might switch gears and take up another point of concern, namely the relationship between knowledge artifacts themselves, by which I mean the arrangement of things and topics in the world. In other words, the environment that the learner as subject is moving through, adapting to, and, in some cases, co-producing (both in their own adaptative process, and "stigmergically" by leaving traces for others, and also in some cases via explicit collaboration). The relationships among and between topics and things is tremendously important for paragogy, as it is for pedagogy. But in paragogy we do not expect other people to have sorted the connections out yet.

Thus we would assert that paragogy is what typically takes place "at the frontiers of knowledge". Certainly we may find idiosyncratic individuals working there, but when they communicate with each other, they tend to do so in a peer-like fashion. This communication is important (even in the extreme case of individuals working alone and in isolation, "communication" via texts or other artifacts passed over time is what allows us to know anything whatsoever is happening).

So this is about as much as I have to say about paragogy things for today -- I've written a sort of outline of topics that are interesting to me; analytics, the potential reasons for thinking about and studying paragogy. There is an emotional reaction to "education" here, and it should be questioned.

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