Digitalisation, and expanding digital infrastructure has given rise to new pedagogical approaches and practises that involve making use of the internet. In the development of this literature-based article, we examined Arctic online education from a holistic perspective, adopting broad definitions of online learning environments and teacher education. The aim of this paper is to map and analyse the state of knowledge regarding the digital transformations of practices and conceptualisations in teacher education and educator training in the Arctic, as we sought to answer the following research question: What is Arctic in online teaching and learning in teacher education and educator training? Our methodology consisted of a scoping review of peer-reviewed papers published between 2003-2023. Through a qualitative content analysis, we explored definitions, perspectives and positions that emanated from the literature. Viewed through the lens of postcolonial theory, our findings and discussion surface important points of ‘difference’ (Verran, 2013) between Indigenous pedagogies, which are a central part of the Arctic-ness, and technological advances that enable online and distance learning, namely: Rootedness And Fluidity; Continuity of the Story And Fragmentation; Preservation And Transformation; Traditional Seeing And (Western) Frameworks, which we argue should be a key feature of conversations within this field.

Digitaliserade lärandemiljöer och distansöverbryggande utbildningsformer har under en längre tid präglat högre utbildning, men den drastiska digitala omställningen i samband med covid-19-pandemin innebar en situation där lärare och studenter i än högre utsträckning kom att skiljas åt i tid och rum. Under våren 2021, när studenter och lärare vid universitet och högskolor under drygt ett år hade bedrivit dessa av regering och myndigheter föreskrivna distansstudier och interagerat i och med de digitaliserade utbildningsmiljöerna, inbjöds tre studentgrupper att delge sina erfarenheter av den digitala omställningen. Studiens övergripande syfte var att synliggöra, kritiskt granska och diskutera studenters erfarenheter av den hastiga och genomgripande digitala transformationen av undervisning och lärandemiljö. Sammanlagt deltog 39 studenter, vilka studerade vid två olika universitet: ett i Sverige och ett på Island. Studenterna fick skriftligt reflektera över ett antal öppna frågeställningar i anslutning till den digitala transformation som deras utbildning genomgått med fokus på upplevelser och erfarenheter av undervisningen, lärandet och rummet. Teoretiskt utgår studien från livsvärldsfilosofi, framför allt vad gäller Martin Heideggers och Gaston Bachelards tankegods, vilka speglas mot och genom studenternas erfarenheter. Resultatanalysen mynnade ut i sju olika teman som samtliga säger något signifikant om digitaliseringen i högre utbildning. Vidare synliggör dessa teman de dikotomier och spänningsfyllda förhållanden som konstituerar rumslighet och hemhörighet i en digitaliserad utbildningskontext.

Digital learning environments and distance education have over time increasingly come to characterize higher education, and during the covid-19 pandemic the digital transition was radically accelerated. This led to an even more apparent temporal and spatial separation between teachers and students. In the spring of 2021, when students and teachers at universities and colleges had been experiencing this imposed form of online teaching and learning for just over a year, three groups of students were asked to share their experiences of the digital transition through written reflections. The overall purpose of the study was to visualize, critically examine and discuss students’ experiences of the rapid and pervasive digital transformation of the teaching and learning environment. A total of 39 students who studied at universities in Sweden and Iceland, participated. The students were asked to carry out written reflections on a number of open questions related to the digital transformation that their education had undergone, and with a certain focus on their experiences of the (class)room. Theoretically, the study is based on the philosophy of the lifeworld, mainly in accordance with the ideas of Martin Heidegger and Gaston Bachelard, which are reflected against and through the students’ experiences. The results are presented in the form of seven different themes, which together illuminate the students’ experiences of the digital transformation of teaching, learning and the (class)room in higher education. Moreover, the results also point out some of the dichotomies and tensions that constitute spatiality and belonging in an educational context.

In Sweden, as in many other countries in the world, there has been a massive shift in (higher) education towards distance education and online teaching. In the midst of this, some universities introduce and use telepresence robots. A telepresence robot provides a virtual presence – or a bodiless presence – to, for example, a remote student who cannot physically attend the classroom. The overall aim of this paper is to explore dimensions of corporeality and hyperreality in digitalized education. More specifically, the focus will be on the research question - how can embodiment and presence be understood when the students are situated, and their participation are mediated, through telepresence robots? The philosophies of Maurice Merleau-Ponty (see e.g. 1968, 1996) and Martin Heidegger (see e.g. 2001) will be used to analyze the complexity of corporeality and hyperreality in digitalized education. Merleau-Ponty’s theory of the lived body supports the analysis of the bodily presence in the room, whereas the Heideggerian ideas and concepts provide entries for an ontological understanding of the relational and spatio-temporal aspects of ‘Being-one’s-Self’ and what ‘Being-there’-with as well as the ‘Being-there’-with-of-Others might mean to students in digitized education. 

References:

Merleau-Ponty, M. (1968): The Visible and the Invisible. Northwestern University Press. Merleau-Ponty, M. (1996): Phenomenology of Perception. Motilal Banarsidass Publisher. Heidegger, M. (2001): Heidegger Studies. Duncker & Humblot GmbH. 

To advance the efficiency and effectiveness of inter-disciplinary research, and to obtain valid strategies for inter-disciplinary projects, there is a need to define inter-disciplinary research approaches explicitly. The current study aims generally to further the understanding of interdisciplinary ways of conducting research, and specifically to describe and explore the challenges and opportunities that characterize research projects which move across borders of different research areas as well as the various disciplinary homes of the collaborating researchers in a recently performed project focusing on Bildung and streamed art. Written reflections from the six participants in the project, representing the disciplines of music education, musicology, education, English literature, sound engineering as well as media and technology science was analyzed and interpreted in relation to Alfred Schütz’ theory of phenomenological sociology. The results are presented through six themes, which together fulfill the aim of the study; (i) Crossed borders, perspectives, and contexts, (ii) Common concepts, definitions, and reconstructions, (iii) Status of theory and explorative freedom, (iv) State of the art and innovative potential, (v) Scientific identity and positioning work (vi) Place, activity, and performance. 

The essay outlines an alternative model of Bildung, which the authors call an evolving Bildung. Their argument for taking this perspective on Bildung builds on Heidegger’s thinking concerning technology and his notion of a step back out of metaphysics and into a thinking of what is essential in technology. Moreover, departing from both Gadamer’s and Heidegger’s thinking the authors analyze how streaming media as art as well as art within streaming media can contribute to develop the notion of an evolving Bildung. The authors, furthermore, use Spotify as an example of a streaming medium which has the possibility to change the way art is experienced, and also how an evolving Bildung can develop education into an authentic human engagement with what can be called the Other, in the broad sense of this term, and so away from instrumentalism and calculative thinking.

The demographic and economic conditions for education in the Nordic countries—especially in remote areas of this region—has led to an increasingly intensive use of information and communication technologies. The authorities’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic has, however, entailed a radical acceleration of the already ongoing change towards digitisation. In the wake of the current pandemic regulations, the purpose of this study was to illuminate and discuss Swedish secondary school teachers’ experiences of online teaching and learning—with a particular focus on the teaching dimension—based on synchronous teaching and learning modes. A specific research question was posed: What opportunities and challenges do online teaching and learning offer when it comes to forming a sense of belonging, authenticity, and presence? Theoretically, this study was based on a phenomenological lifeworld approach. The empirical data, collected from March 2020 to March 2021, consisted of written reflections from ninety-three teachers in a remote school district. Three themes showed how online teaching and learning redefines the bodily, temporal, and spatial conditions for teachers’ experiences of belonging, authenticity, and presence in education. The study also indicates how digitisation might serve as a disruption that not only reminds us of the pedagogical assignment at hand but also lets another possible pedagogical world announce itself.

This article explores the meaning and function of streaming media as a potential facilitator of musical Bildung. Taking the affordances of streaming media technologies as a starting point, the article thus focuses on the formative and cultivating dimensions a music streaming service such as Spotify might offer. The specific aim of this article is to describe and analyse how musical Bildung may evolve within a Spotify context from a user perspective. To address the aim from the point of view of music education, Spotify users’ activities and experiences of streaming media interactions were accessed, inspired by internet-related ethnography. Stimulated recall interviews, focusing on the participants’ experiences as well as their actual use of Spotify’s streaming service, were conducted, recorded, and transcribed. The generated material was subjected to co-operative hermeneutic content analysis. The results illuminate how Bildung evolves in users’ encounters with the service and with art mediated via Spotify. Relevant topics occurring in the human-art-technology relationship of Bildung from a Heideggerian perspective were Being-possible, the ability-to-be, and Spotify as the Other. In sum, it can be stated that Bildung evolves when Spotify exceeds the thingness of the Other, becoming a work of art in itself, throwing the user into Being.

Vilka bildningsprocesser kan urskiljas ur människors Spotifyanvändande? Det visar sig att ett sådant användande är tätt sammanflätat med musikalisk- såväl som digital kunskap. Med ett fokus på de bildningsprocesser som sker i samspelet mellan människa, teknik och musik utmanas förståelsen av vad en strömmande musiktjänst som Spotify kan erbjuda. ”Evolving Bildung in the nexus of streaming services, art and users – Spotify as a case” är ett tvärdisciplinärt projekt som visar hur människans bildningsprocesser villkoras, utmanas och möjliggörs i och med den strömmande medieutvecklingen. Denna bok kan med fördel användas inom utbildningar i musikpedagogik, musikvetenskap, musikproduktion, ljudteknik, pedagogik, kulturstudier, sociologi, samt medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap. I detta specifika kapitel i antologin tittar Ekberg och Ferm Almqvist närmare på de projektdeltagande forskarnas egna erfarenheter av att bedriva tvärdisciplinär forskning. Författarna försöker förstå deltagande forskarnas upplevelser av den gränsöverskridande forskningens såväl värden som utmaningar med stöd av ett livsvärldsfenomenologiskt perspektiv på kommunikation och meningsskapande.

Vilka bildningsprocesser kan urskiljas ur människors Spotifyanvändande? Det visar sig att ett sådant användande är tätt sammanflätat med musikalisk- såväl som digital kunskap. Med ett fokus på de bildningsprocesser som sker i samspelet mellan människa, teknik och musik utmanas förståelsen av vad en strömmande musiktjänst som Spotify kan erbjuda.

”Evolving Bildung in the nexus of streaming services, art and users – Spotify as a case” är ett tvärdisciplinärt projekt som visar hur människans bildningsprocesser villkoras, utmanas och möjliggörs i och med den strömmande medieutvecklingen. Denna bok kan med fördel användas inom utbildningar i musikpedagogik, musikvetenskap, musikproduktion, ljudteknik, pedagogik, kulturstudier, sociologi, samt medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap.

What educational processes take place in people's Spotify use? It turns out that such use is closely linked to musical as well as digital competences. With a focus on the educational processes that take place in the interplay between people, technology and music, the understanding of what a streaming music service like Spotify can offer is challenged.

"Evolving Bildung in the nexus of streaming services, art and users - Spotify as a case" is a cross-disciplinary project that shows how the processes of human education and self-formation are conditioned, challenged and made possible by the streaming media development. This book can be used in educations in music pedagogy, musicology, music production, audio engineering, pedagogy, cultural studies, sociology, and media and communication science.