Flanerie a la 21st Century
PhD Dissertation Research
As a lifelong student, I have decided to take my already well researched Master's Thesis and refocus the research for my Online Global Higher Education degree. I have always been a Flaneur, and will always be a Flaneur in the urban landscape.
A Flaneur was a stroller, a saunterer and a dandy in 19th Century Parisian settings. The flaneur often had no job, was wealthy and had time on his hands and would take his pet turtle out for a walk along the streets of Paris.
In my thesis, I explored the idea of the Internet being the new urban setting and the avenues of exploration being done in cyberspace. Now I am taking the next step and as a Global Education student am integrating the idea of Education being accessed online by the cyber flaneur who can stroll amongst the web and access not only information, but an education that offers them a terminal degree online.
As such, I am asking those who are willing to offer me any and all ideas, comments and research links so as to give this topic my full and critical attention. I am in the beginning stages of the dissertation process, but one must always be reading literature on the topic and working daily in order to find sources, new information and ideas that will serve as evidence of the proposed research data.
As Internet strollers, we spend copious hours online taking classes, working, answering e-mails, doing research and playing games. Life in the "urban city" is not a physical place anymore. Of course, people still stroll in physicality, but more importantly for my topic, they exist as lurkers, observers, and students of life online.
Any and all ideas will be welcome and of course credit will be given when the entire process is compiled. There is an art of taking a "walk" whether it be physically or virtually. Life is a continuous stroll to places unknown, and awaiting our entrance to a new realm of knowledge.
