Resistance is Futile: Cognitive dissonance, temporal refusal, and the e-learning environment as cyborg

This study uses interpretive sociological methods to explore parallels between fictional accounts of cyborgs and educational technology-based practices currently present in some e-learning environments. Specifically, the cyborg in fictional accounts ( Star Trek and Doctor Who) and the cyborg in academic accounts (Donna Haraway’s A Cyborg Manifesto) are used to frame an analysis of the potential of regarding e-learners as cyborgs. Two social scientific concepts are revisited in this analysis: cognitive dissonance (social psychology) and temporal refusal (critical sociology). These conceptual lenses reveal that the various modes of operating in the online classroom have assimilating tendencies threatening to draw us into a mass social delusion. Considering the science fiction trope, “Resistance is Futile”, the author proposes that the promotion of “best practices” sublimates us into the domination of a particular educational philosophy. Recognizing this type of oppression provides space for temporal refusal – withdrawing from the potentially assimilating “Borg” when it threatens to be disadvantageous to education. Her conclusions lead the author to suggest the need for a critical reflexivity in teachers to identify and take advantage of opportunities to resist the absorption of distinctiveness in the online educational environment.