2020 was undoubtedly an exceptional year. A global pandemic forced us to change our social practices, our sense of closeness, our understanding of others, of space, and even of ourselves. For the first time, the entire world had to retreat into their homes and try to keep life going by reorganizing everything we used to do with others, outside our doors.
Education did not fare any better. Teachers had to rethink practices, relationships, and the goals of teaching in a year where something we take for granted, like life itself, became something to protect. All other activities had to be reorganized, postponed, or even suspended to safeguard health. In this context, at the University of Buenos Aires’ Data course, we had to come up with a remote class: a meaningful learning experience during such a historic moment. From our perspective and with the subjects we deal with, we designed a critical journey around platform capitalism, technical subjectivities, and the challenges of connecting with others mediated by social networks and platforms.
With record attendance (we usually have courses with 30 students, but under these conditions, we had 50, with many able to resume their studies without the need to travel!), we designed a compact and condensed course focusing on essential content, and a final multi-platform project.
With a tight schedule, and the final class coinciding with the December 8th holiday, we decided to hold a live broadcast on Twitch, showcasing all the final projects from the student groups, with the teaching team commenting and evaluating the work live. Thus, we organized the gala for classes 23 and 24. The professors dressed up in our best at-home outfits and went live.
It turned out to be a beautiful experience: the teachers sharing opinions about our students\’ process, many of them participating through the chat, receiving feedback from home in a friendly format, where we also made room for laughter and fun. A special end to a special semester, without a doubt. An interesting fact is that, according to Twitch statistics, we had 135 unique viewers during the broadcast, while the students from both sections totaled 106. Perhaps the broadcast reached more people than just those directly involved. Another great opportunity to open the university\’s doors.
The recording of the broadcast (all 3 hours and 20 minutes!) can be found below:
