Classrooms form two opposing attention structures modeled on radio broadcast versus network dialogue

Evidence

Indeed, from the nursery school to a professor’s seminar, a classroom represents a situation of presential co-attention whose structure and methods may support or inhibit didactic interaction. The categorizations suggested by Vilém Flusser prove to be particularly enlightening here for distinguishing two poles of pedagogical practice. At the first (MASTERLY) POLE, the classroom is structured in accordance with the ‘radio system’, with a ‘central transmitter’ (the teacher) ‘connected in a single (‘univocal’) direction to a multiplicity of peripheral receivers’ (the pupils). The teacher arrives in the classroom having prepared a ‘(dis)course’, the aim of which is to ‘broadcast pre-existing information’, which has been ‘stored up’ and which he seeks to transmit with minimal loss – the best marks go to the student who is able to regurgitate what the teacher has taught. At the other (INTERACTIVE) POLE, the classroom may be structured as a ‘network system’, connecting the participants in ‘a (‘biunivocal’) way that enables them all to transmit and receive’ in a ‘dialogue’ whose goal is ‘to synthesize pre-existing partial information’ (and not only transmit it). — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 263

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines masterly (radio/univocal) versus interactive (network/biunivocal) poles of classroom attention using Flusser’s terminology.
• XREF: Radio vs network maps cleanly onto broadcast-era vs digital-era attention economics, and echoes the Frankfurt School’s ‘one-to-many’ vs contemporary distributed-platform contrast this reader is bridging toward. — connects to: The networked audience differs from broadcast audiences in enabling active participation — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 593; Focal and global attention constitute two distinct modes of listening — Pauline Oliveros, Deep Listening, 189; Presential joint attention differs in kind from media-captured attention by its participant-limited scale. — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 304 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Presential joint attention differs in kind from media-captured attention by its participant-limited scale. #expands (0.75) — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 304
• Joint attention requires co-presence, excluding algorithm-mediated influences #contradicts (0.75) — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 246
• Focal and global attention constitute two distinct modes of listening #complicates (0.70) — Pauline Oliveros, Deep Listening, 189