theorywatch

I didn’t have a name for this concept until I came across Teemu Arina’s strikingly suggestive phrase “parasitic learning,” which Arina defines as the “learner using someone as a teacher through virtual means without the knowledge or consensus of the host.”

This is the first metaphor related to learning/teaching I’ve encountered that seems to have implications significant enough to compete with Reddy’s celebrated “conduit model” of almost thirty years ago. It certainly gives a new perspective on the frontiers of distance education, hmm?

communication, education