Learning virtual communities and dialogical interaction: on bodiless presenciality

Abstract

E-learning, in Brazil, has been recently involved in some questioning about how necessary it is to consider obligatory presential classes as a supplement to distance education. It has been implicitly assumed in this questioning that presential classes help preserving educational quality. Thus, it has influenced Brazilian public policies for distance education. This article asks whether a body present in classroom guarantees more than the sole presence of that body and what a presential class guarantees that a virtual class does not. Answers to this question consider that there is a bodiless presentiality due to dialogical interaction.

Key words: distance education, e-learning, virtual communities, dialogical interaction, bodiless presentiality