Paul Bylsma about A Mirage in Online Education

On this week’s SciFiles, your hosts Chelsie and Daniel interview Paul Bylsma from MSU's Higher, Adult, and Lifelong Education. This thought project discusses the simultaneous proximity and distance that most of us in the academic world felt as a result of COVID online learning. Paul and his collaborators use a unique theoretical lens that foregrounds the role of the body in learning to describe how being visually present online is not enough to replicate the physical presence that we took for granted in in-person learning. For example, our squares in a Zoom room were super close, and we (typically) had no problem seeing and hearing each other. But Paul's research explains how such visual proximity is betrayed by irreconcilable distances masked by technology. If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube!