Rhizomatic learning

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 I watched a youtube this week from educators around the world http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_uo0lhH-2I&feature=youtu.be       Rhizomatic learning is a way of thinking about learning in a community. the nodes learners or web sites create the knowledge by joining together. 

 A rhizome, sometimes called a creeping rootstalk, is a stem of a plant that sends out roots and shoots as it spreads.  A rhizome has no beginning or end… like the learning process. 

Dave Cormier wrote his first article on the topic ‘rhizomatic education: community as curriculum’ in an article I wrote in 2008.

"The whole idea of rhizomatic learning is to acknowledge that learners come from different contexts, that they need different things, and that presuming you know what those things are is like believing in magic. It is a commitment to multiple paths. ". I’m going to try and create some context for a conversation about rhizomatic learning by offering four questions about education… and explaining how i’ve tried to answer them with this theory.

• Why do we teach?
• What does successful learning look like?
• What does a successful learner look like?
• How do we structure successful learning?

Why do we teach?different learning theories say we put the knowledge into people's heads then test them to see if it is there. Another learning theory says we co-construct meaning but the teacher always has the power and control. in the digital age we should expect our students to know more than we do at the end of their search for connections that make sense to them at their level.
 I teach to try and organize people’s learning journeys… to create a context for them to learn in.A successful learner would be one that can learn how to learn, learn useful materials from bogus flimsy stuff. The successful learner would be able to way find by them selves and develop the discipline needed to find and collate knowledge for different purposes.They would learn for life not just to pass this one assignment.

To structure learning for all to go at there own pace and level the module booklet would have to have a guide to reading areas and perhaps some high level papers to set the standard. Tutorials should be on line aND IN CLASS TIME SO THE LEARNER CAN ACCESS HELP AS THEY NEED IT.