One of the two MOOCs I have reg for and started now in the beginning of 2014 is
I realy love this course and its title. Rhizomatic Learning- the community is teh curriculum
and as Dave says:
"Doing this course
I've put together a blog post to give you a sense of 'where' the course
is happening and what you might like to do as part of it." In the info about the course it starts with "Your unguided tour of Rhizo14". I really just live the approach.
Rhizomatic learning is a story of how we can learn in a world of
abundance – abundance of perspective, of information and of connection. A
paper/location based learning model forces us to make decisions, in
advance, about what it is important for students to learn. This was a
practical reality – if we were going to have content available for a
course, it needed to be prepared in advance. In order to prepare the
content in advance, we needed to prepare the objectives in advance. And,
given that we know what everyone is supposed to learn, we might as well
check and see if they all did and compare them against each other.
What happens if we let that go? What happens when we approach a
learning experience and we don’t know what we are going to learn? Where
each student can learn something a little bit different – together? If
we decide that important learning is more like being a parent, or being a
cook, and less like knowing all the counties in England in 1450? What
if we decided to trust the idea that people can come together to learn
given the availability of an abundance of perspective, of information
and of connection?
I really love and I am really dedicated to the rhizome way of
thinking and learníng, In my dissertation on
Benchmarking in higher edcuation- lessons learned from interantional projects, I argued for a
rhizome model of quality enhancement, actually I have the rhizome theory
as a frame of reference in my research.
the work by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari
Gilles Deleuze and
Félix Guattari
use the term "rhizome" and "rhizomatic" to describe theory and research
that allows for multiple, non-hierarchical entry and exit points in
data representation and interpretation. In
A Thousand Plateaus, they oppose it to an
arborescent conception of knowledge, which works with
dualist
categories and binary choices. A rhizome works with planar and
trans-species connections, while an arborescent model works with
vertical and linear connections.
As a model for culture, the rhizome resists the organizational
structure of the root-tree system which charts causality along
chronological lines and looks for the original source of 'things' and
looks towards the pinnacle or conclusion of those 'things.' A rhizome,
on the other hand, is characterized by 'ceaselessly established
connections between semiotic chains, organizations of power, and
circumstances relative to the arts, sciences, and social struggles.'
Rather than narrativize history and culture, the rhizome presents
history and culture as a map or wide array of attractions and influences
with no specific origin or genesis, for a 'rhizome has no beginning or
end; it is always in the middle, between things, interbeing,
intermezzo.' The planar movement of the rhizome resists chronology and
organization, instead favoring a nomadic system of growth and
propagation.
"In this model, culture spreads like the surface of a body of water,
spreading towards available spaces or trickling downwards towards new
spaces through fissures and gaps, eroding what is in its way. The
surface can be interrupted and moved, but these disturbances leave no
trace, as the water is charged with pressure and potential to always
seek its equilibrium, and thereby establish smooth space.
Deleuze and Guattari introduce six principles:
- 1 and 2: Principles of connection and heterogeneity: any point of a rhizome can be connected to any other, and must be
- 3. Principle of multiplicity: only when the multiple is effectively
treated as a substantive, "multiplicity" that it ceases to have any
relation to the One
- 4. Principle of asignifying rupture: a rhizome may be broken, but it
will start up again on one of its old lines, or on new lines
- 5 and 6: Principle of cartography and decalcomania: a rhizome is not amenable to any structural or generative model; it is a "map and not a tracing"
The very first task in this course is to reflect on
Use cheating as a weapon. How can you use the idea of cheating as a tool
to take apart the structures that you work in? What does it say about
learning? About power? About how you see teaching?
This is really a challenge as such. Knowledge has always build on what others are doing of course one has to give recognition to teh one/s who create thíng, but is it always easy to know who was teh firsst one, A lot of knowledge is so called common knowledge, and as such always has benn known. By cheating you can learn a lot as well, you just have to know how you can use it and what it means. It is strange there as alway been some strange opinion that knowledge ahs to do with power. Some know more than others, and as such have "higher" status.
It would be nice, if an assignment in HE should say to students , cheat as much as you can, and tehn discuss waht we can learn about it. ONe thing for sure, is how to deal with Creative Commons, Copyright, referrie rules, acknoledgement etc . Could be a nice starting point
I think with a rhizome mindset, sharing is caring, and caring is sharing. Together we gain knowledge and experiences and learn to network
#rhizo14
@EbbaOssian
