LA DIDATTICA DI QUARANTENA CI RENDERÀ IMMORTALI / QUARANTINE TEACHING WILL MAKE US IMMORTAL

Abstract

The dislocation of teaching from the space of the “physical” classroom (what we usually call face to face teaching) to the space of online synchronous and asynchronous interactions – what I call “quarantine teaching” – as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, has revealed, intertwined with, and exacerbated some of existing elements of crisis of the university system. In this essay I try to disentangle this combination of “underlying conditions” and new elements of criticity produced by Covid-19 through the reconstruction and analysis of how the dislocation from face to face to online teaching took place in my university, the University of Edinburgh. Based on my personal experience and how I have adapted to the new quarantine teaching regime, I navigate the tensions between virus, education, and life, as well as the threats of brutalisation of teaching and learning that the normalisation of this regime could pose.

Keywords:
Covid-19 Pandemic, Distance Learning, Neoliberism, Life, Cognitive Work