…first try with Diigo auto-blogging feature works nicely, even if format aesthetics leave something to be desired so I tidied up the format, added images, page break and a head note -- and with it, more value.. I'll try to "fix" next week by post a few images during the week , especially toward the end of it. The post is long so I need to come in Sunday morning to add a head note, page break, whatever...at least one image if the "fix" doesn't work
Though these are not part of the course content, do not appear on the syllabus, and will not be assessed, they are more important than the course content.
Education is training for life, not just a career, and certainly not just a job upon graduation.
About teaching and learning to be rather than learning to know.
You could open this link and highlight annotate this paper with us. You need to download a little app for that: see https://www.diigo.com/tools
The rhizome metaphor, which represents a critical leap in coping with the loss of a canon against which to compare, judge, and value knowledge, may be particularly apt as a model for disciplines on the bleeding edge where the canon is fluid and knowledge is a moving target.
The definition of knowledge is considered 'key' to the search for shared understanding. The more I read that sentence, the more it becomes the worm Ourboros. If it's a key, then the there is a locked something behind it. In litcrit this has been a fiercely fought battle. Some say it unlocks the power relationships undergirding any society, some say it unlocks the mysteries in the knowers themselves. Some say, fuck it and let's just look at the shiny things inside the vault with no further intent. Yes, it is difficult.
I believe that one of the functions of theory is to reveal our cognitive blindspots. This they very much do while at the same time creating new blindspots that arise from the use of the 'tools' of the new theory. Any new system of knowledge exposes the assumptions of the the old system. For example, awareness meditation reveals the blindspot of categorization and differentiation, but the Buddha realized that say focusing on the breath is like pointing at the moon, just another step along the path toward no-mind. Mind and knowing is the problem.
I am profoundly happy to see Myles Horton cited and used. I think he has had more influence on my teaching and learning than any other. His autobiography The Long Haul is absolutely must-read for a rhizomatic pov.
I am quite taken by the word 'translation' here. I think the metaphor of translation is central to rhizomatic learning as we are always connecting and sharing information that then gets translated into knowledge (actionable knowing).
Great question by Alec Couros in the comments: how do we get to a place where we are really and truly decentralized, and will this make the difference?
I don't think the decentralized rhizome has reached a tipping point society wide, but perhaps we can play at the rhizomatic game for this short few weeks and see what it might mean to live in this world that may or may not be emerging.
doubt if information really is the source of knowledge. Mostly it is, but the road from information, over statistics, logics, arguments is not that simple I think
If a given bit of information is recognized as useful to the community or proves itself able to do something, it can be counted as knowledge.
It's a loaded term, for sure, because those who call themselves experts are often the ones in power, and with books and writers to back them up. Is the Internet changing this paradigm? Not yet. Not yet.
The explosion of freely available sources of information has helped drive rapid expansion in the accessibility of the canon and in the range of knowledge available to learners.
Information is coming too fast for our traditional methods of expert verification to adapt.
In the rhizomatic model of learning, curriculum is not driven by predefined inputs from experts; it is constructed and negotiated in real time by the contributions of those engaged in the learning process.
The living curriculum of an active community is a map
The cartography of learning. I am always intrigued by how this plays out, if done successfully. Most of the curriculum mapping I have done ... I would not call them maps. They are just plot lines going nowhere, it often seems. But the idea of a map continues to intrigue me.
I know D&G speak of a map as opposed to a tracing. I struggle with understanding this. The best I can come up with is the idea that a map gives possibilities for exploration, as opposed to a photo which declares what exists. This leaves me wondering about sites like Lino and Pinterest. Might they function as a map of one's exploration too, rather than just a collection of discoveries.
Knowledge seekers in cutting-edge fields are increasingly finding that ongoing appraisal of new developments is most effectively achieved through the participatory and negotiated experience of rhizomatic community engagement. Through involvement in multiple communities where new information is being assimilated and tested, educators can begin to apprehend the moving target that is knowledge in the modern learning environment.
we see as our goal the co-construction of those secret connections as a collaborative effort
Is this what we are doing together here in Diigo, co-constructing secret connections collaboratively? Sounds like an underground conspiracy (forgive the lame joke there.)
Meta note here: I see our collaboration as a secret growing of knowledge among us. It may only even be true for us, on this web page, at this particular juncture because we are growing it out on the tip of the root of this text.
Examples of this conversion in our work here?
1. Each of us runs these words through the filter of our own experience
2. sharing out on social networks
3 asking and answering quesions
members of several communities—acting as core members in some, carrying more weight and engaging more extensively in the discussion, while offering more casual contributions in others
Sharing power - deconstructing the tradtional power structures of the educational system. Did this recursion result in "watering down" the curriculum? From what I recall of Dave's story, the students put in extra effort instead. Like me, they had difficulty in knowing when to quit, the exploration was so rewarding.
Stephen Downes (http://www.downes.ca/post/61209 and elsewhere) argues against socially "constructed" knowledge, saying instead that knowledge is recognized. Cormier's "negotiated socially" fits nicely.
the expert is the power. No resistance is tolerated, because who knows better than the expert? But curriculum is not only made by experts, pressure groups do influence curriculum, hypes and politics do either. Here is the reason for cheating.
Yes, this is exactly the point James Scott makes when he creates the binary of legible/illegible where the suppression of uncertainty is the definition of legibility.
It is even systematically constrained in other (non-traditional) environments, even informal ones at most times.
I am thinking here of Nicolas Taleb's ultimate uncertainty, the unknown unknown, the Black Swan. I think that most suppression of uncertainty arises from the futile attempt to quell Black Swans and their evolutionary disruption.
Seems like predictability is worming its way into your discussion of uncertainty. Uncertainty is largely complex and unmanageable. Should we be focusing more on the processes and products that emerge from uncertainty? I don't think we can do a whole lot more than that, but I am certainly open to being informed more on this.
Dave Cormier, the facilitator of Rhizomatic Learning, will showcase the premiere of the radio play — A Multitude of Voices: Mr. X Loses His Battle for Objectivity — in his next post and message
When something had to get done I think it's interesting that there had to be a director and an editor and whip wielder to get it done. Doesn't seem entirely rhizomatic to me. Means to me that there are places for rhizo and other places for hiearchy.
Hmmm .. good point ... collaborative editing would be interesting and nearly impossible ... maybe ... there is the tension of "let's get this done" and the "let's wait to hear your ideas on how to get this done" in the mix ...
Terry had a great song earmarked for the ending (an Arabic version of Toy Story and “You’ve Got a Friend in Me”), but I could not figure out if it would violate copyright if we used it, so we abandoned it. As I told Terry, it probably is best, as Michelle Shocked wrote in one of her songs, to make your own jam anyway.