1: Sahaya | Getting Started With The Cyborg Classroom
Today I shared with excitment my website idea with group members/students/friends!, and was happy to see that they shared my excitement about the project. We're still waiting to meet with two other team members so we can distribute responsibilities . Our goal is not just to pass the semester but to truly bring to life this vision of pedagogy that sees technology as neither savior nor threat but as an extension of human capabilities.
I'm curious by the different perspectives each person will bring to this project. While our foundation is sociological, each of us has unique "prisms" we're passionate about. Talia Jean will be focusing on the First-Generation/First-In-Family perspective, while Atalia will explore Learning Disabilities and neurodiversity, drawing from her personal experience with Dyslexia (and my experience with ADHD). We're thinking Kahraman could provide the Arabic-speaking perspective, offering insights and balance that are crucial to our context in the Hebrew University. I will bring in the feminist internet activism point of view and design approach, examining how digital spaces and classrooms can be reimagined.
For Tal, whom I haven't met yet, I'm considering suggesting she could document our process through blog posts and contribute to developing our process maps, though I'm open to her interests. I believe consistent documentation throughout the semester will be valuable not only for the project itself but also for potentially developing a qualitative research paper.
It could also be fascinating to incorporate diverse student perspectives beyond our immediate group. I'm thinking of inviting students from different backgrounds to contribute their thoughts and experiences. This approach would enrich our project with multiple voices and viewpoints – perhaps I'll start asking who would like to write a piece for our blog.
I intend to approach this entire process as an ethnographic research project – documenting our interactions, observing how our different perspectives shape our understanding of the cyborg classroom concept, noting tensions and alignments in our thinking, and analyzing how our Jerusalem context influences our approach. By maintaining detailed field notes throughout the semester, I hope we'll create a rich account of how a diverse group of students navigates the intersection of technology, pedagogy, and cultural-political context.
Sahaya Villaluz
