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 \u201cOpenness\u201d (Cronin, 2017) and \u201cRhizomatic Learning\u201d (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 \u201cOpen Learning\u201d and the concepts involved within it.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
I had never heard the term \u201cRhizomatic Learning\u201d or even \u201cRhizome\u201d 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 \u201cOpen Source\u201d resources. I found Dave Cormier\u2019s blog on \u201cRhizomatic Learning – Why we teach\u201d (Cormier, 2011) and since I had not heard the term \u201cRhizome\u201d previously, I decided to start there. In Dave\u2019s blog-post (2011), \u201ca rhizome, sometimes called a creeping woodstalk, is a stem of a plant that sends out roots and shoots as it spreads\u201d.\u00a0 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\u2026 like the learning process (Cormier, 2011).<\/p>\n
This definition reminded me of some other theories I had encountered previously in relation to the \u201cNature vs. Nurture\u201d \u00a0psychological debate (Locke, 1894) and how Cormier\u2019s model seems to focus on the \u201cNurture\u201d side of that coin. In the post regarding the \u201cLearning Ecosystem Participant Model<\/a>,\u201d 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 \u201cMentor\u201d virtually links the idea of \u201cNurturing\u201d learners to come to their own conclusions and to be \u201copen to\u201d learning\u00a0 and to keep the conversations going.<\/p>\n I can safely say that after this week, it\u2019s time to start reading!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n References<\/p>\n Cormier, D. (2011, November 5.) Rhizomatic Learning \u2013 Why we teach [Blog post]. Retrieved from http:\/\/davecormier.com\/edblog\/2011\/11\/05\/rhizomatic-learning-why-learn\/<\/a><\/p>\n Cormier, D. (2016, November 8.) Learning Ecosystem Participant Model [Blog post]. Retrieved from http:\/\/davecormier.com\/edblog\/2016\/11\/08\/learning-ecosystem-participant-model\/<\/a><\/p>\n Locke, J. (1894). \u00a0An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Edited by Alexander Campbell\u00a0Fraser. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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 \u201cOpenness\u201d (Cronin, 2017) and \u201cRhizomatic Learning\u201d (Cormier, 2017) opened up a… Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lrnt521"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0002\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0002\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0002\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0002\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0002\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0002\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":149,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0002\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148\/revisions\/149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0002\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0002\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0002\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}