869 Matching Annotations
  1. Mar 2016
    1. What happensif I let goand cannot get back to myself

      That's the risk with uncertainty

    2. I think we do need to notice that a new sort of resilience needs to be nurtured.

      indeed

    3. in so doingdidit increase the vulnerability of some participants as learners as

      if the people are vulnerable with uncertainty then that is an important lesson.

    4. some tension betweenparticipants who, in the absence of any significant course structure or guidelines,

      As is there is no tension where there is a significant course structure and guidelines!!!!

    5. smooth space is not always trouble free.

      NOR is STRIATED SPACE

      https://youtu.be/YeFzeNAHEhU

    6. Deleuze and Guattari(1980/2013)identifyfurther potential difficulties for learner

      Blimey. Deleuze and Guattari pedagogues of the rhizomatic approach?

    7. “the ethical implications of pedagogical experimentation, interrelated processes of community and curriculum formation, the role of the MOOC convener, and learner experiences within MOOC communities”,

      So what was the pedagogical experimentation beyond Community is Curriculum? (no answer - I have some ideas...)

    8. Metaphors are always incomplete,

      NOT a METAPHOR

    9. Our data has shown that there was little agreement on what the rhizome means for teaching and learning; unpacking this wouldhave required some co-definition and agreement by Rhizo14 participants,andearly in the course discussion of theorywas seen as unnecessary

      Go ahead unpack...

    10. These pedagogicalissues are those that the rhizome as a literal metaphor,without being grounded in the theoretical conceptual framework that originated it,cannot cover.

      What theoretical conceptual metaphorical pedagogical framework would that be?

    11. Perhaps the difficulties that many have with reading and writing about Deleuze and Guattari’s workis the cause of thetragic paradox of the rhizome noted by Gregoriou (2004, p.240):

      Why is it tragic?

    12. The difficultiesof reading and writing about the rhizome as a metaphor for thinking, and teaching and learning, such that the writing models the principles expounded by Deleuze and Guattari,and can yet beunderstood,has challenged a number of authors, including us.

      It's not a metaphor. It's not a metaphor. It's not a metaphor.

    13. 4, despite the course bearing the title Rhizomatic Learning: The Community is the Curriculum, there was limited willingness to discuss the complexity of the conceptual metaphor and how Deleuze, Guattari,and others had used the concept in different contexts

      That was not the objective. In no place did it suggest that to be the objective. People are quite happy to discuss D&G

    14. Some respondents were explicitly opposed to reading and discussing Deleuze and Guattari’s work

      “I believe strongly that philosophy has nothing to do with specialists.” ― Gilles Deleuze

    15. were emphatic in their animosity towardsmetaphor

      Doesn't stop the writers of the article appropriating it as a metaphor

    16. Nomads are adaptive and constantly evolving, they go with the flow, resist authority and control,and are “indifferent to boundaries laid down by the State apparatus”

      “I believe strongly that philosophy has nothing to do with specialists.” ― Gilles Deleuze

    17. Lack of engagement with theory and lack of appreciation of the incompleteness and complexities of the rhizome metaphorcan result in negative consequences

    18. He also stated that he was “a nomad, not a knower” and that he was “hosting a party, not trying to tell you what or how to think”

      This was a great success for many

    19. “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?”(Cormier,2014a).

      So for D.Cormier - this is rhizomatic?

    20. Deleuze and Guattari’s

      “It is not the slumber of reason that engenders monsters, but vigilant and insomniac rationality.” ― Gilles Deleuze, Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia

    21. more movement through uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity

      So the teacher's role is to create the space of learners to recognise/experience uncertainty/complexity

    22. Bayne (2004) some thought thatthe teacher’sjob in rhizomatic teaching is to smooth striated spaces. A respondent wrote:

      Can teaching be about creating smooth spaces?

      This is Key.

    23. Network and community. Two tricky words to compare/contras

      Yes

    24. Lines of flight are alwayspart of the rhizome, but are not without risk

    25. rather than anyprescribed contentbeing offered.

      The prescribed content was the short videos

    26. there were no objectives for the course

      That is not true.

      There were clear objectives for the course. Community as curriculum. Investigation into the nature of learning/knowledge. etc

    27. This echoesDeleuze and Guattari’s(1980/2013)concerns about over-representation and reification of metaphor

      That's one reason no doubt they don't say it's a metaphor

    28. It probably relates more to my experience as a learner than as a teacher. I think we can intentionally create learning experiences for others that resemble this metaphor, but the more we attempt to design, the more we are contradicting ourselves

      Yes therein lies one contradiction

    29. The rhizome wasalso thought to be useful as an explicitmetaphor for explaining how knowledge is created through social learningon the Internet

      There might be some truth in that.

    30. complexity, for instance, is a larger, more inclusive framework for rethinking education and pretty much everything else. But complexity is a rather abstract term that mostly confuses people

      There is an element of truth in that

    31. rhizome

      magic

    32. Recognition of the rhizome as tangible was also acknowledged byanthropologists Douglas-Jones andSariola (2009) who physically dug up an iris to support them in their auto-ethnographic process of learning to understand Deleuze and Guattari

      Maybe we need to dig up Deleuze and Guattari to understand Irises

    33. (We chose the word metaphor, as opposed to concept, because that was our understanding (and that generally of Rhizo14 participants) at the time of writing the interviewquestions.)

      NOT A METAPHOR

      Researchers lacked engagement with concept.


      Will there be negative consequences?**

    34. This interview was designed to elicit information about participants’ understanding of the rhizome metapho

      NOT A METAPHOR.

    35. Rhizo14 participants were surveyedabout their understanding of the relationship between the rhizome and teaching and learning

    36. The methodologyand ethics of this data collection, and subsequent findings, have been reported in detail

    37. he principles of the rhizome are therefore usefulconcepts for encouraging teachers and learners to break free from traditional ways of thinking and working.

    38. disappearing into the distance

    39. Deleuze and Guattari encouraged their patients to take lines of flight.

    40. Deleuze and Guattari(1980/2013) worked with schizophrenic patients and others with complex mental problems.

      NO THAT WAS GUATTARI.

    41. Amongst the most significant of these concepts for teaching and learning that challenge traditional ways of thinking, are lines of flight

      Lines of flight exist everywhere...especially in traditional ways of thinking

    42. , heterogeneit

      heterogeneity is in contradiction with community

    43. The concept of the rhizome has also been used by Deleuze and Guattari (1980/2013) to explore ways of thinking

      They have used different ways of thinking to explore.

    44. The rhizome metaphor

      Not a metaphor

    45. metaphors need to be treated with care

    46. Metaphors shape the way we see and the way we act, they enact a particular viewandcan be “self-fulfilling prophecies”

    47. If wethink teachingis a rhizomecertain actions ensue

      Teaching is a rhizome. Teaching is a rhizome. Teaching is a rhizome.

      Is that enough?

    48. “in creating ways of seeing they tend to create ways ofnotseeing”

      you don't need a metaphor not to see.

    49. with complex metaphors, such as the rhizome,

      NOT A METAPHOR

    50. hink outside the box,

      BOX what box?

    51. for the purposes of this paper wewill not worry undulyabout whether the rhizome is metamorphosis or literarymetaphor.We will consider the rhizome as a conceptual(about thinking and reasoning)metaphor and explore the extent to which it works.

      Sod engaging with D&G

    52. They believed that viewing the rhizome as a metaphor (in the sense of a linguistic expression)would imbue in the rhizome an unwelcome power andlead to over-representation and reification

    53. Metamorphosis is the contraryto metaphor. ... It is no longer a question of a resemblance ... Instead, it is now a question of a becoming ...

      So it's NOT A METAPHOR.

    54. he discussion of theory being seen as problematicfrom that point on

      Er not.

    55. could have been framed as simply two different kinds of personal objectives (to learn more about the theory and to ignore the theory

      Indeed it could have been framed as different personal objectives.

      However the question comes here of the role of the carnival....

      Carnival can be scary.

    56. The lack of objectives led to a planned ambiguity about what would or could become topics.

      There were implicit/explicit objectives.

      There were objectives to experiment with a pedagogical approach which calls upon a planned ambiguity. (questioning fixed/traditional ideas about learning/knowledge/education)

      But this is associated with the Community is the Curriculum.

      With the ambiguity/indecision around the objectives (pedagogical approach to investigate nature of learning/knowledge/connection with power and communities)

      This led inevitably to conflict as some participants had a fixed idea about what it was going to be about.

      This is perhaps where the ethical issues raised lie.

      If you are going to do a carnival people need to be prepared for it.

      On one side you have carnival and the other you have people who perceive a real threat to identity.

      Carnival can be scary.

    57. suggested that engagement with theory might be necessary to understand rhizomatic learning

      They didn't understand the carvival.

      This assumes that there is a theory of "rhizomatic learning". (I mean is there such a theory?) D~G are about many things...

      DG could also be accused of dissimulation and elitism in their writing. - which part of it does one engage with?

      All of it?

    58. Each week’s discussion was based on a provocative statement orquestion, as follows:•Week 1 –Cheating as Learning (January14–21)•Week 2 –Enforcing Independence (January21–28)•Week 3 –Embracing Uncertainty (January28–February4)•Week 4 –Is Books Making Us Stupid? (February4–11)•Week 5 –Community As Curriculum (February11–18)•Week 6 –Planned Obsolescence (February18–?

      Mixed Messages.

      We have mixed messages - was it about a pedagogical approach or about the nature of knowlege/learning? (a bit of both)

    59. The title of the course suggests that Deleuze and Guattari’s(1980/2013)concepts and the principles of the rhizome would be discussed,

      That is a massive assumption. The title suggested this to the authors of the article but not necessarily to others.

      (and they were discussed)

    60. Challenges to traditional ways of thinking about teaching and learning lie at the heart of rhizomatic learning and ultimately these challenges werethe curriculumfor the Rhizo14 MOOC

      So the Curriculum was predefined but perhaps hidden and not made explicit.

    61. Working across distributed platforms challenges assumptions about the nature of the curriculum, how knowledge is created, the role of the teacher,and the learning support that learners can expect (Cormier, 2008).

      So this is talking about cMOOCs

    62. Rhizo14 was designedas a connectivist MOOC (known as a cMOOC). cMOOCs

      So it was designed as a connectivist cMOOC. What was rhizomatic about it? Are (n't) all cMOOCs rhizomatic? If not why? What is the RhizoUSP?

    63. Our key finding was that experimental pedagogies such asthose based on therhizomecouldlead to both light and darkexperiences

      My key finding on that finding was: Pfff

    64. C wasinformed byDeleuze and Guattari’s (1980/2013) concept of the rhizome.

      No it wasn't - or at least it wasn't that much.

    65. Lack of engagement with theory and lack of appreciation of the incompleteness and complexities of the rhizome metaphorcan result in negative consequences, such as imbalances in power relations and increased vulnerability for some learners.

      So if people have an engagement with theory (how much?) will this mean there will be not negative consequences?

      So if people appreciate the incompleteness and complexities of the "rhizome metaphor" (not a metaphor for Deleuze) will there no negative consequences?

      And if researchers have a lack of engagement with the theory/appreciation of the incompleteness/complexities of the rhizome metaphor will this result in negative consequences?

      And if the course convenor has a lack of engagement with theory and lack of appreciation of the incompleteness and complexities of the rhizome metaphor can that result in negative consequences?

      "Une théorie est une question développée, et rien d’autre : par elle-même, en elle-même, elle consiste non pas à résoudre un problème, mais à développer jusqu’au bout les implications nécessaires d’une question formulée." Deleuze

    66. but that knowledge and understanding of Deleuze and Guattari’s conceptual principles of the rhizome was more difficult.

      YUP

    67. raised concerns about the ethics of using experimental pedagogies in designing MOOCs.

      Aren't all pedagogies are "experimental".

    68. Deleuze and Guattari’sprinciples of the rhizomewere used to inform the design of a massive open online course(MOOC), Rhizomatic Learning

      That is highly debatable.

    69. principles of the rhizomewere used to inform the design of a massive open online course(MOOC), Rhizomatic Learning: The Community is the Curriculum, which came to be known as Rhizo14.

      That is highly debatable.

    Annotators

    1. One respondent who described herself as never fully arriving or leaving the course wrote of connecting

      more to the metaphor as a learner than a teacher:

      It probably relates more to my experience as a learner than as a teacher. I think we can

      intentionally create learning experiences for others that resemble this metaphor, but the

      more we attempt to design, the more we are contradicting ourselves. YUP EXACTLY

    2. Rhizo14 participants were surveyed about their understanding of the relationship between the rhizome and teaching and learning.

    3. They believed that viewing the rhizome as a metaphor (in the sense of a linguistic

      expression) would imbue in the rhizome an unwelcome power and lead to over-representation and reification.

      EXACTLY. but that is exactly what is done here - an attempt to reify.

      Once the concept is defined/reified you are missing the point. You are no longer concerned with mapping but with tracing.

    4. We suggest that this is more likely to be successful if we

      remember that Deleuze and Guattari (1980/2013) did not oppose the root and the tree and that they were

      opposed to chaos, as we explored in an earlier section.

    5. ... even though I believe in rhizomes as a metaphor for learning, it’s harder to connect it

      back to an intentionality around teaching and/or designing instruction ...

    6. We recognise that the rhizome can successfully challenge traditional authoritarian, hierarchical

      approaches to teaching and learning, freeing learners to follow their own learning paths and determine

      their own learning objectives.

      The rhizome challenges nothing.

    7. we can say that using the rhizome as a metaphor for teaching, learning, and course design

      requires knowledge and understanding of the theoretical principles outlined by Deleuze and Guattari

      (rhizome as a concept)

      Well you can say it but that is all - that is an assertion.

      But that is not what D.Cormier's rhizomatic learning is about.

    8. of Deleuze and

      Guattari’s (1980/2013) principles of the rhizome

      I'm not sure they would agree

    9. The rhizome metaphor does not call for the tree to be opposed to the root. Each is a necessary condition

      for the other (Drummond, 2005). There is need for both arboreal and rhizomatic thinking.

      YES. INDEED.

    10. Deleuze and Guattari’s (1980/2013) rhizome is a way of understanding the philosophy of becoming

      which takes learners into uncertain, unstable, and disruptive spaces

      Hmmm....

    11. We also believe that if the rhizome is going to be used as a stimulus for

      change, then superficial treatment and understanding of the concept is potentially damaging for learners’ becoming.

      There may well be ethical questions here.

    12. we do not believe that any research method can

      be intrinsically rhizomatic.

      indeed!

      BUT that depends on what you mean by research.

    13. The concept of the rhizome has been applied successfully by learners and teachers within education (St.

      2004), but Deleuze and Guattari (1980/2013) did not place in opposition the root (rhizomatic

      thinking) and the tree (arboreal thinking), nor lines of flight and territorialisation, nor smooth and striated

      space. To do so would be to create a dogmatic image of thought (Drummond, 2005).

      But that is what happened....?

    14. Lack of recognition of the necessary condition of the tree was perhaps the most significant element of the

      paradox of the rhizome evident in the Rhizo14 MOOC.

      "necessary condition of tree" that rather depends what that means....

    15. But Deleuze and Guattari were opposed to chaos

      So?

      They are dead.

    16. Tensions can also arise in relation to the rhizome principle of heterogeneity. The heterogeneity of people

      and ideas in a community that was also a course, such as Rhizo14, could result in uneven distribution of

      power with some individuals leveraging this power differential

    17. I think we do need to notice that a new sort of resilience needs to be nurtured.

      YES certainly.

    18. The course embraced this disruption, uncertainty, and chaos as a necessary component of learning in

      an age of abundance and massive open online learning environments (Cormier, 2013), but in so doing did

      it increase the vulnerability of some participants as learners as suggested by Gale

      BUT THAT was THE OBJECTIVE...

      Therein lies the question of ethics.

    19. The smooth space of Rhizo14

      WHAT SMOOTH SPACE?

    20. But as Deleuze and Guattari have pointed out, smooth space is not

      always trouble free. Movement in smooth space is unpredictable and uncertain with no end in sight.

    21. Perhaps the difficulties that many have with reading and writing about Deleuze and Guattari’s work is the

      cause of the tragic paradox of the rhizome noted by Gregoriou (2004, p. 240):

      Well the difficulties are is that is difficult to read. That is nothing to do with any tragic paradox....or is it?

    22. metaphors (not metaphor) are often unconscious and embodied in experience.

    23. I still don’t know what rhizomatic learning is. I’ve enjoyed (am enjoying) #rhizo14 because

      of the people I have met (am meeting), but I think that it will need a lot more fleshing out

      before I can decide whether it is useful. I doubt if any one metaphor will ever be sufficient

      for learning, though.

    24. Metaphors are always incomplete,

      PARTICULARLY IF THEY ARE NOT METAPHORS.

    25. Our data has shown that there was little

      agreement on what the rhizome means for teaching and learning.

    26. This interview

      was designed to elicit information about participants’ understanding of the rhizome metaphor and to follow up on their survey responses with individual questions.

    27. “The conceptual rhizome does not map on to a

      botanical definition.”

      NOPE so don't use it as the metaphor!!!

    28. Like St. Pierre and Douglas-Jones and Sariola, we are also acutely aware of the arboreal constraints under which we are working and the pressure to produce a linear text which is ordered and coherent

      But nobody is forcing you to do that.

    29. despite the course bearing the title

      Rhizomatic Learning: The Community is the Curriculum,


      THE COMMUNITY IS THE CURRICULUM ***

      I would thought that was pretty clear

      However therein lies the problem - the community is a reification.

    30. despite the course bearing the title

      Rhizomatic Learning: The Community is the Curriculum, there was limited willingness to discuss the

      complexity of the conceptual metaphor and how Deleuze, Guattari, and others had used the concept in

      different contexts.

      IT'S NOT A METAPHOR

      And that is not true. - What does limited mean?

    31. Participants were

      encouraged to start wherever they wished, to make multiple connections between each other and with a

      diversity of participant generated and shared resources, to create their own personal learning maps and

      content, to engage in multiple different modes of activity, in multiple spaces, and to manage their own

      learning. A culture of play and fun emerged; many artefacts incorporating poetry, music, personal

      writings, photography, and art works were produced. A-signifying rupture and lines of flight, if not lines

      of fantasy, and nomadic behaviours were in evidence.


      That's already pretty good!!**

    32. The tragic paradox of the rhizome metaphor

      IT's NOT MEANT TO BE A METAPHOR

    33. Ultimately for most respondents the value of the Rhizo14 experience lay in “the spirit of exploration,

      openness, experimentation, of trying new things” (interview respondent), rather than any engagement

      with Deleuze and Guattari's principles of the rhizome.

    34. Some respondents were explicitly opposed to reading and discussing Deleuze and Guattari’s work. “I was

      so hacked off by academic posturing around D&G on Rhizo14 I've set my face against them.”

      YUP

    35. Deleuze and Guattari (1980/2013) were emphatic in their animosity towards metaphor as

      resemblance, as we discussed earlier. One respondent stated that the rhizome is not a model or a theory;

      others explained it in terms of a lens, a stimulus, or a story. None of the respondents referred to it as a

      concept, which is how Deleuze and Guattari explained it, but then few respondents were familiar with

      Deleuze and Guattari’s work, and this was not generally seen as problematic:

      BUT THE RESEARCHERS ARE NOT FAMILIAR WITH IT EITHER.

    36. One respondent noted the contradiction of discussing rhizomatic teaching in a course where there was no

      curriculum:

      THERE WAS A CURRICULUM - IT WAS THE COMMUNITY

    37. Rhizomatic teaching was thought by some to challenge the status quo and power of the teacher, and like

      Bayne (2004) some thought that the teacher’s job in rhizomatic teaching is to smooth striated spaces.

      But that is impossible;

    38. respondents seemed unclear about whether a rhizome suggests a network or a community and

      whether and how it relates to connectivism:

      YUP

    39. for explaining how knowledge is

      created through social learning on the Internet, “The best social learning leads to the co-creation of

      knowledge” (interview respondent), particularly across distributed platforms

      learning can be complex, chaotic, unpredictable, exploratory, creative and playful.

      Just like CLMOOC/CCOURSES/MOOCMOOC etc

    40. who physically dug up an iris to support them in their auto-ethnographic process of

      learning to understand Deleuze and Guattari.

      Perhaps we should dig up Deleuze and Guattari to better understand Irises?

    41. The rhizome was thought by interview respondents to be useful for exploring new ways of thinking about

      education, but incomplete.

      Yup.

    42. The rhizome and the nomad are inseparable in the sense that the rhizome is the path that the nomad follows.

    43. lines of flight enable us to think otherwise and resist codes and

      powers (Deleuze, 1988, cited in Avalos & Winslade, 2010).

    44. A line of flight escapes territorialisation and, through deterritorialisation (a sudden swerve or

      rupture creating new lines of segmentarity) metamorphoses into something new.

    45. A line of flight escapes territorialisation and, through deterritorialisation (a sudden swerve or

      rupture creating new lines of segmentarity) metamorphoses into something new.

    46. Lines of flight are a means of

      evading dominator systems of thought, a means of breaking down existing connections and power

      relations (Winslade, 2009)

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcmElrsCtnk

    47. Deleuze and Guattari (1980/2013) worked with schizophrenic patients

      NO that was Guattari.!!!

      Since the mid-50s Félix Guattari became a fixture at La Borde, revolutionizing its practice and organization and producing alongside Oury a large body of theoretical work on the practice and theory of schizoanalysis,

    48. Amongst the most significant of these concepts for teaching and learning that challenge traditional ways of thinking, are lines of flight and the nomad.

      "Lines of flight" exist in any classroom.

      Encouraging lines of flight - is that really possible?

    49. Cartography/Decalcomania

      NOPE there is a a contradiction here.

      There is an attempt to predict outcomes : a) The creation of instability/uncertainty b) The creation of community.

    50. Multiplicity/A-Signifying Rupture.

      Design is a-centred. - up to a point but not really.

      It allows for break away groups - yes.

    51. Relevance to teaching.

      Encourage ceaseless connection - what's the difference with cMOOC?

      Encourage diversity in people - what's the difference with a MOOC?

      The system has no beginning, or end, can be entered at any point. - Teaching? well on the internet documents can be entered at any point.

      In the case of a course - can it be entered at any point? - Probably not.

      CREATION OF COMMUNITY is in contradiction with heterogeneity.

    52. Decalcomania "The tracing has translated the map into an image, it has already transformed the rhizome into roots and raddicles."

    53. A-signifying Rupture "a rhizome may be broken but it will start up again on one of its old lines, or on new lines."

    54. "Heterogeneity - there is no ideal speaker-listener - there is no homogenous linguistic community."

      This appears to be the criticism of the course?

    55. "Cartography - a map that is always modifiable and has modifiable and has multiple entryways and exits and its own lines of flight."

      Hypothes.is enables this article to become rhizomatic perhaps?

    56. "Multiplicity there is no unity to serve as a pivot in the object or to divide in the subject." this article is clearly not rhizomatic.**

    57. "A rhizome ceaselessly establishes connections between semiotic chains" - this article is clearly not rhizomatic.

    58. The concept of the rhizome has also been used by Deleuze and Guattari (1980/2013) to explore ways of thinking that challenge hierarchies and deprivilege centres of authority. Not sure about that. Are they really exploring ways of thinking or using different ways of thinking to explore (and challenge)?**

    59. In botanical terms a rhizome is a subterranean stem of a plant, a creeping root stalk, which spreads

      laterally in multiple directions and surfaces to produce a clone of the original plant in an unexpected

      location. Some rhizomes, such as ground elder, are considered weeds which gardeners find very difficult

      to control. Other rhizomes, such as lilies of the valley, with their beautiful scented flowers, are more

      welcome. The botanical rhizome has both positive and negative interpretations, and these may vary by

      location; in the old saying a weed is a plant in the wrong place.

      Are we talking about Deleuze/Guattari or botany?

    60. we will now outline some of Deleuze and Guattari’s (1980/2013) principles of rhizomatic thinking

      attempt to trace?

    61. Having established that metaphors need to be treated with care and that for the purposes of this paper

      when we discuss metaphor we are referring to conceptual rather than literary metaphor,

      DELEUZE/GUATTARI say it is NOT a metaphor.

    62. If we think teaching is a rhizome certain actions ensue.

      Who is thinking of teaching as a rhizome? Good luck

    63. writes of metaphors, “in creating ways of seeing they tend to create ways

      of not seeing” (p. 348). Metaphors shape the way we see and the way we act, they enact a particular view

      and can be “self-fulfilling prophecies” (Lakoff & Johnson, 2008, p. 132). Any cross-contextual mapping

      highlights a set of features whilst backgrounding others. This is the case in all metaphors, including the

      rhizome.

      What is the metaphor which shapes this action?

    64. Likewise, for the purposes of this paper we will not worry unduly about whether the rhizome is

      metamorphosis or literary metaphor. We will consider the rhizome as a conceptual (about thinking and

      reasoning) metaphor and explore the extent to which it works. ANOTHER (MIS)APPROPRIATION?**

      Where is the engagement with the concept here?

    65. If metaphors such as the rhizome can be used to change learners’ conceptual frameworks and encourage people to think outside the box,

      It's not the bloody metaphor which will make you think outside the box.

    66. "Lack of engagement with theory and lack of appreciation of the incompleteness and complexities of the rhizome metaphor can result in negative consequences, such as imbalances in power relations and increased vulnerability for some learners."

      So if people have an engagement with theory (how much?) will this mean there will be not negative consequences?

      So if people appreciate the incompleteness and complexities of the "rhizome metaphor" (not a metaphor for Deleuze) will there no negative consequences?

      And if researchers have a lack of engagement with the theory/appreciation of the incompleteness/complexities of the rhizome metaphor will this result in negative consequences?

      And if the course convenor has a lack of engagement with theory and lack of appreciation of the incompleteness and complexities of the rhizome metaphor can that result in negative consequences?

      "Une théorie est une question développée, et rien d’autre : par elle-même, en elle-même, elle consiste non pas à résoudre un problème, mais à développer jusqu’au bout les implications nécessaires d’une question formulée." Deleuze

    67. Elizabeth St. Pierre (2004) thinks it is possible to over-think what Deleuze might mean and suggests that

      we:

      give up worrying about what Deleuze might have intended and use him in [our] own work

      ‘to free life from where it’s trapped, to trace lines of

      into a different way of being in the world. (p. 284)

      EXACTLY

      BUT that is the problem of their bloody book. We become tracers of its mapping.

    68. Metamorphosis is the contrary to metaphor. ... It is no longer a question of a resemblance

      ... Instead, it is now a question of a becoming ...

      Ah voilà - becoming...

    69. the rhizome is a

      concept that challenges authoritarian and hierarchical ways of thinking.

      Up to a point...

      Their language does not challenge elitism among French academics...

    70. In our context for this paper, an example of this

      mapping might be that from the rhizome to teaching and learning. Good luck to mapping the rhizome to teaching!!

    71. Metaphors in teaching and learning

      D. Cormier now calls it a 'story'. (and at other times a metaphor).

    72. "What could have been framed as simply two different kinds of personal objectives (to learn more about the theory and to ignore the theory) became instead a site of contention. The situation was resolved by all three parties leaving the course, and the discussion of theory being seen as problematic from that point on."

      Indeed it could have bee framed as simply two dfferent kinds of objectives.

      The discussion of theory was seen as problematic by some particpants - it was not "seen as problematic from that point on" as a generalisation.

    73. *suggested that engagement with theory might

      be necessary to understand rhizomatic learning.*

      But that assumes that there is a theory of "rhizomatic learning". (I mean is there such a theory?) D~G are about many things...

      DG could also be accused of dissimulation and elitism in their writing. - which part of it does one engage with? All of it?

    74. The lack of objectives led to a planned ambiguity

      There were implicit objectives.

      One of these objectives was to introduce a planned ambiguity.

      There were objectives to experiment with a pedagogical approach which had been called "rhizomatic learning" which is related to the concept of the Community being the Curriculum.

      As there were mixed messages - there was conflict.

      This is perhaps where the ethical issues lie.

      One can indeed question a approach which is not explicit in explaining its carnivalesque objective to get people to question all the basis of knowlege and learning. People don't give up their ways of learning and their attachment to what they consider knowledge or their status so easy.

    75. *Week 1 – Cheating as Learning (January 14–21)

      • Week 2 – Enforcing Independence (January 21–28)

      • Week 3 – Embracing Uncertainty (January 28 – February 4)

      • Week 4 – Is Books Making Us Stupid? (February 4–11)

      • Week 5 – Community As Curriculum (February 11–18)

      • Week 6 – Planned Obsolescence (February 18–?)* Mixed Messages.**

      So therein lies the problem we have mixed messages in the course titles - was it about a pedagogical approach or about the nature of knowlege/learning?

      The answer of course was it was a mixture of both.

    76. The title of the course suggests that Deleuze and Guattari’s (1980/2013) concepts and the principles of the rhizome would be discussed,

      That is a massive assumption. The title suggested this to the authors of the article but not to others.

    77. *The intention of the MOOC was to challenge the traditional notion of a course where the content is

      planned in advance. The course was therefore an experiment designed to explore “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?” (Cormier, 2014a).*

      So is this the key difference?

      In the case of other cMOOCS the course curriculum is defined and published before - but not the content and discussions?

    78. *Working across distributed platforms challenges assumptions about the nature of the curriculum, how

      knowledge is created, the role of the teacher, and the learning support that learners can expect (Cormier,

      2008). Challenges to traditional ways of thinking about teaching and learning lie at the heart of

      rhizomatic learning and ultimately these challenges were the curriculum for the Rhizo14 MOOC.*

      So aren't these challenges of assumptions exactly the same as for rhizo14?

    79. *Another key characteristic of cMOOCs is that the learning takes place across distributed social media

      sites rather than within an institutional platform (Bayne & Ross, 2014; Haggard, 2013). This necessitates

      distributed open communication between self-motivated learners and results in “a self-organising network

      with many sub-components” (Bates, 2015, Chapter 5, Section 5.3.2.2).*

      So this is exactly the same as rhizo14?

    80. *was designed as a connectivist MOOC (known as a cMOOC). cMOOCs can

      take a variety of pedagogical approaches. Approaches to their design are still evolving (Bates, 2015) but all are based on four key principles: autonomy, diversity, interactivity, and openness (Downes, 2014).*

      So it was designed as a connectivist cMOOC. What was rhizomatic about it? Are (n't) all cMOOCs rhizomatic?

      cMOOCs emphasise and promote connectivity, content creation by participants, open sharing and peer-to-peer teaching and support, with no set curriculum, assessment, or formal teacher-student relationships (Bates, 2015).

      So what on earth makes this cMOOC more rhizomatic that other ones?

    81. we continue our research with an exploration into the learners’ experiences of using the rhizome as a conceptual framework for teaching and learning in a MOOC.

      hmm

    82. Our key finding was that experimental pedagogies such as those based on the rhizome could lead to both light and dark experiences.

      My key finding on reading that was: Pfff

      People have good and bad experiences of life.

    83. The design and delivery of this MOOC was informed by Deleuze and Guattari’s (1980/2013) concept of the rhizome.

      No it wasn't - or at least it wasn't that much.

    84. Our findings reveal that many participants could relate to and welcomed "the anti-authoritarian, anti- hierarchical characteristics of the rhizome"

      Anti-authoritarian characterics - hmm. Are these characteristics of the rhizome or the cmooc?

      but that knowledge and understanding of Deleuze and Guattari’s conceptual principles of the rhizome was more difficult. Yup

    85. raised concerns about the ethics of using experimental pedagogies in designing MOOCs.

      Aren't all pedagogies are "experimental".

      Ethics - of research? Ethics - of 'non-experimental pedagogies'.

    1. Well… rhizomatic learning (as I’ve been talking about it) suggests that there is not start point and ending.

      If I have never seen a computer and never written a blog post - that's a start point...

    2. Terry Anderson’s (edited) book on online learning.

      This is another aspect of the content

    3. Blog posts

      So this and the other activities are the curriculum.

    4. that learning is something that can be effectively (if at all) measured in the classroom, I’m trying to measure effort. Effort defined quite broadly. Let me know how you think I’m doing

      Can't you measure literacies?

    5. Some have never stepped foot in the classroom as teachers. Some have spent 30 years there. Some spent 25 years working on a job that they are now going to teach to others. Some have never been in the formal workforce before. I had one student last year with PhD in chemistry working with a career pipe-fitter. I mean… how awesome is that?

      So adult self-motivated learners?

    1. It shouldn’t, in my view, simply lock down the content so that what constitutes ‘learning’ is measured in how much we can prove that content has been transferred from the instructor to the learner.

      so this is socio-constructive/active/connected learning.

      Is the USP of rhizomatic learning The Community as Curriculum?

    1. The more other students see knowledge negotiation happening from their peers, the better. This might be as simple as a blog post or video.

      collaborative learning - creation of learning community culture.

    2. Finding relevant people in a field, checking out their work, using their work to triangulate to other people and ideas… this is what knowledge building is all about.

      rhizomatic learning = networking building up a vision fo existing community.

    3. it doesn’t allow for connection between learner and content creator.

      so this is where it is essential to have conversation with content creators..

    4. Collaborative learning should not be seen as a cure all for the ills of education.

      So rhizomatic learning = collaborative learning?

    1. premised on working with three of what I consider to be the most important technologies you can use in education – blogging (wordpress) for reflection, a networking tool (twitter) for connection, and googledocs for curation.

      So in a sense these are literacies which are being developed - and therefore they are the implicit curriculum.

    1. create a common language t

      and this language is common to...?

    2. Improve collaborative work Our group work belongs to all of us, and it is the record of what we’ve done together. If everyone spends an hour going in, cleaning up links, making new connections, fixing formatting… our work gets much better. Imagine you were working on a house together and you saw a part of the house unpainted. Get brush. Paint.

      So this IS the curriculum. - Learning to work collaboratively in a digital environment.

    3. Give your colleagues good feedback,

      So this is overtly taught.

    4. If I, as an educator, create an obligation by setting an artificial performance mark or some other leverage of power, then we are working from my own context and history and not yours.

      But you are...

    1. in the community.

      which community?

    2. Teaching students how to make good questions for themselves, to ask them in ways that are going to lead to effective searching and learning, is something that should be overtly done.

      OK so this is overt teaching

    3. encouraging uptake

      So this is not the learners deciding on the curriculum

    4. e can, i think, allow people to go out on the internet unscripted and allow them to remediate those things that they have ‘diagnosed’ as something they don’t quite get.

      Hmmm...

    5. Student responsibility for learning And this, of course, is what i want in the first place.

      I could give them a list of words to memorise and they are responsible for learning it.

    6. Encouraging students to create a list of ‘things i don’t get’ and following it up with strategies of remediation would not only be useful for the learner but for the whole community of leaners.

      but if they don't get it - they aren't really necessarily deciding on the curriculum...

    7. ould further reinforce the idea of student control of learning behaviours and suggest a transfer of power from teacher to learner.

      but that may be an illusion.

    8. It is easy to forget when you are immersed in a field that many people not only lack an understanding of the meaning of particular words, they are excluded from the context

      indeed

    9. i would suggest that being ‘outside’ the conversation is lonely

      not if you are many to be outside the conversation

    10. there IS a curriculum and to some might suggest that that curriculum is fixed and stagnant

      there is a curriculum. It is fixed by the use of tools.

    11. who have literacy gaps that they can go ahead and fill them on their own

      how do you know if you have a gap?

    1. Of perspectives

      Really?

    2. In an open environment I might have people from all over. I might have people coming from vastly diverse backgrounds and influences.

      But all with access to internet...

    3. How much of our desire for perfection in things like spelling and argument are directly related to the finality of print?

      print or power?

    4. be open and online

      good question

    5. This need not be a one way conversation where I’m reciting the ideas of our forebears to you for you to repeat.

      Note sure that this was necessarily the case...

    6. e need not make the 2000km journey braving pirates to get together and talk about our practice.

    7. democratizing power

      "democratizing power' - not sure about that

    8. Raise your hand if you’ve never been or had a substitute teacher who read from the textbook, assigned the questions from the back of the chapter, and never yet understood what they were talking about. Yeah. I didn’t think so.

      Don't you do that?

    9. Teachers

      define teacher. - how has this concept changed?

    10. not a terribly efficient way

      define efficient.

    11. vast majority of learners, whether in churches or in schools

      So learners are those related to the elite (what of the others?)

    12. there is a RIGHT answer.

      GOD/CHURCH/POWER

      Isn't this still true? (dependent on what group you want to belong to?)

    13. Learning became what is called a catechetical act. Read and repeat. Memorize as written.

      Is a lecture reading?

    14. is a critical turning point in the history of knowing and learning.

      knowing and learning to an elite

    15. in this case

      in this case - which case?

    16. At this time, however, most things were performative. Plays were performed.

      Has this changed?

    17. Caesar was willing to take a trip of 2000KM through pirate-infested waters in order to learn from one man.

      Are we sure?