Rhizomatic Learning

Rhizomatic Learning what is it?

As I listened to Dave Cormier and the Blackboard collaborate EC&I session taken on October 25,2011 it became clearer. Cormier is the manager of web communications and innovations at University of Prince Edward Island and is also part of edtechtalk, an open collaborative webcasting community. his focus is on the structure and why of education. In the collaborate session we spoke towards the concept of Rhizomatic learning: Why do we educate our systems? What is the purpose schools set out for?

The timeline of school system structure initially brought up fits in with Dan Pink's a whole new mind and the right brained society instead of the past industrial society. Cormier stated that

He thinks there are three different outcomes for the education system
- workers,soldiers and nomads metaphors

1. The worker
This was the original goal of public education system.This is about creating a workforce who will show up on time,accept tasks and complete them. School is to create citizens who will understand and obey the system. Very industrial.

2.Soldiers
These people figure out what people need to know. They are defenders of the status quo, experts inside the system on how it works. Good SAT scores, gets you into a good college, etc..

3. Nomad
A nomad is a creative thinker that carves his/her own path.They do not follow status quo but learn things because they need them.

Cormier brings up a great question"Should we be encouraging nomads?
Some of the students of the EC&I class stated: :they frighten me, we can try and encourage it, we will need to prepare them for the hardships of being a nomad. I however think we should encourage nomads with restrictions. As Cormier explains

     Rhizomatic learning comes from rhizomes:japanese weeds that spreads and is difficult to contain and follow.  To promote nomads we need to create restrictions or a garden for these rhizomes so they become structured. As educators I agree with Cormier that we should become gardeners who are "creativity tenders." Allow learning to be a process of inquiry from the student and allow the moments of becoming to happen. Project based learning has started this rhizomatic learning and I can not wait to see what happens in the future.