Ikhtilaf Journal of Critical Humanities and Social Studies

In higher education, the covid-19 crisis has highlighted the role of digital technologies and in particular those pertaining to online education as an inevitable paradigm. Emerging in full force during the “shock” of the pandemic, the all-digital turn is creating a challenging situation where these “Intellectual Technologies” to use Jack Goody’s expression, are forever altering “ Knowledge.” As Bernard Stiegler stated, “Digital technology is in this respect an “intellectual technology” […] in which the industrialization, automation, and performance of speed radically transform the conditions of intellectual life in all aspects: psycho-affective, economic, geopolitical, social, cultural, artistic, intellectual, and scientific.” In this perspective,  universities are compelled to accelerate their digital transition after a period  of slackening pace of (often optional and complementary) digital contents in the form of moocs, and other online classes.  The Covid 19 Pandemic had  the effect of jumpstarting the digital machine, and this time it’s pretty serious, judging by the sums of money invested in infrastructure and training for faculty and students everywhere. The spotlight is on online teaching and learning platforms once again, except that this time it sanctions the legitimacy of the virtual classroom where students and teachers are geographically distant, but where the sought for IRL class interaction becomes virtual, impersonal and deferred.