The spectacle of distance education

Abstract

The present essay presents some elements for a theoretical discussion on some issues relating to distance education (DE) through the Internet. The main goal is to show the ways of the spectacle in teaching through the DE technology through the Internet. Beginning with the presentation of some concepts, the first observation is that the problem now is not about the substitution of the presential teaching, but the transition of the institutionalized formation to a generalized exchange of knowledge. The discussion on virtualization disagrees semantically with Pierre Lévy's view, and makes evident the new possibilities for reading acts and textual production generated by technology: in the same way cinema could not have succeeded if it had depended only on filming fixed scenes, like in the theater, DE through the Internet makes a spectacle out of teaching as it modifies a number of tools that are much different from the mere reproduction of contents in the presential teaching.