I would have to say that the Virtual Symposium was a very eye-opening experience. The presentations that were provided by Catherine Cronin and Dave Cormier on the topics of “Openness” (Cronin, 2017) and “Rhizomatic Learning” (Cormier, 2017) opened up a whole world of educational terms that both overwhelmed and excited me. I came to realize just how little I knew on the topic of “Open Learning” and the concepts involved within it.

Some of the exit pathways presentations from Lilian Chumbley and Yvonne Armstrong were also very engaging and they provided me with a sense of dread thinking about the next two years and how I will have to balance this new world of learning with current work expectations.

I had never heard the term “Rhizomatic Learning” or even “Rhizome” previously and decided that was the one concept that had me completely stumped. I decided to follow-up on this methodology to find out more about it from some of these “Open Source” resources. I found Dave Cormier’s blog on “Rhizomatic Learning – Why we teach” (Cormier, 2011) and since I had not heard the term “Rhizome” previously, I decided to start there. In Dave’s blog-post (2011), “a rhizome, sometimes called a creeping woodstalk, is a stem of a plant that sends out roots and shoots as it spreads”.  He summarizes that this is in reference to an image used by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, to describe the way ideas are multiple, interconnected and self-relicating. A rhizome has no beginning or end… like the learning process (Cormier, 2011).

This definition reminded me of some other theories I had encountered previously in relation to the “Nature vs. Nurture”  psychological debate (Locke, 1894) and how Cormier’s model seems to focus on the “Nurture” side of that coin. In the post regarding the “Learning Ecosystem Participant Model,” Cormier discusses four types of people in a learning ecosystem: the consumer, student, rhizomatic learner, and mentor (2016). I think we can agree that even the term “Mentor” virtually links the idea of “Nurturing” learners to come to their own conclusions and to be “open to” learning  and to keep the conversations going.

I can safely say that after this week, it’s time to start reading!

 

References

Cormier, D. (2011, November 5.) Rhizomatic Learning – Why we teach [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://davecormier.com/edblog/2011/11/05/rhizomatic-learning-why-learn/

Cormier, D. (2016, November 8.) Learning Ecosystem Participant Model [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://davecormier.com/edblog/2016/11/08/learning-ecosystem-participant-model/

Locke, J. (1894).  An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Edited by Alexander Campbell Fraser. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press.