Pedagogy in public: virtual interfaces as the new agora

Note: Session time is listed in BST. Check your local time zone.

During the pandemic, platforms like Minecraft and Instagram became complex spaces for both play and pedagogy. Discourse tends to focus on interaction and the ability to communicate to broad audiences; however, they have also enabled a shift of pedagogy out of private institutional spaces and into the public realm. I argue that these spaces function as a new iteration of the ancient Athenian agora, where philosophers like Socrates and Aristotle famously met with students in the public marketplace. In public space, these teachings cannot be confined to the student and teacher—instead, teaching and learning are opened up to the flow of daily life and passers by, who may choose to participate in, or disrupt, the proceedings.

Presenter: Melanie Wilmink, Banting Postdoctoral Researcher (Yonsei University)

Session type: Case Study