By IVAN EMIL LABAYNE
www.nordis.net

One clarification made is that “remote learning” does not wholly mean online learning. The more fitting description has something to do with physical distance, not being together physically: we learn remotely, not facing one another in the flesh, not in a shared space but in our respective places, and paces.

We got to face it sooner, rather than be late in ‘class,’ since hindi ako maka-join sa meeting, hindi alam ang passcode, the host won’t “admit” me into the meeting: even before getting into other infrastructural details (modules, course packs, gadgets, other devices), let alone the matter of emotional and mental capacities  (the household abuzz with chores, sinong maghuhugas ng pinggan, sinong nagda-download ng malaking files, bumabagal net, paano ba tong apps na to, andami kong bagong aaralin), there is the matter of merciless Internet speed. Other countries are having ala-fast-and furious-car chasing scenes with their breakneck speed, tayo mala-game-of-thrones and its caritela scenes.

If only “remote” in remote learning has a meaning close to the one implied image-wise in Jameson’s quip about channel-switching as typifying the postmodern feel: ‘endless’ choices, presented superficially (you linger for five-ten seconds on one channel, then move on to the next ‘pag di mo trip—base sa limang segundong yun) that the choice becomes less weighty, less necessary than the act of browsing the multiple choices. Think also of the surely typical act of adding items to your online shopping cart, but eventually not continuing to place the orders, or pay for them. Iyong mismong act lang ng pag-window shopping, pag-pore over sa mga pwedeng bilhin, sa mga pwedeng panoorin, minsan yun lang naman talaga ang hanap natin; or more painfully and closer to the truth, yun lang ang kaya nating gawin.

But that sense of “remote,” imbued with a passive-aggressiveness that is not pathological but mainly caused by prevailing social conditions—focused more on consumption rather than creation—does not sound better than the mis-equation remote=online. I keep digging holes for myself, rhetorically, plunging deeper and dipping further into some dark view of days. While this can be justified by the state and series of events, I feel like it must not deny the still possibility of play, and inventive maneuvers.

As in these words from Barbara Kruger’s Remote Control, where she pronounced that the predominance of video technology has “transform[ed] the emancipatory notion of ‘play’ into the relentless realm of ‘instant replay.’ In today’s remote learning, this has affinities to the following: “lectures will be recorded so that those who were not able to join synchronous sessions can still listen to them afterwards.” Lectures can be re-played, re-watched, re-viewed. Sweet, albeit tokenistic efforts, myopic in its grasp, failing to at least touch on underlying conditions. Not being able to join synchronous sessions is just a symptom of the disease that is Internet connectivity that is unevenly available, and even where available, may not always be reliable. Imbes na ma-address itong problemang ito, recording lectures and sending them to students who failed to attend can only serve to be reminders of the problem. Files still need to be downloaded; bandwidth still needs to be consumed.

Seeking to exhaust definitions of “remote,” I encountered “far away in space,” not just in time—hence, remote locales, or communities. Also, “slight,” as in “There is a remote possibility that Duterte’s administration will just use Bayanihan 2 to further its own interests.” Regarding the first, I think of the often-romanticized, divisive stories about people from far-flung areas, or anywhere with hardly any Internet connectivity, climbing mountains to attend webinars or classes. Regarding the second, I am tempted to put a face to all these miseries flung at us, seemingly by incomprehensible, external forces, seemingly beyond our control. But even that act of putting a face does not suffice, for what is Duterte’s administration than just the current enabler of a system that is bigger than them, that will still likely rule even as the administration’s reign has lapsed.

I see readers not reaching this last paragraph. You have wandered elsewhere, some other tab, perhaps the very next tab to this Nordis tab, about sealions or Manila Bay or Pemberton. Sometime in the past, we will mix tenses and see each other, strangers on streets, hindi magkatabing parisukat sa screen ng zoo(m). Ngayon, we settle for the tenuous Internet connection that binds us, itching to get disconnected, only to connect in the flesh. # nordis.net