Dave Cormier posted this comment on Facebook, which got a good chat going:
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The concern, is that last year there were some tensions, some feelings of exclusion or lack of inclusion, conflicts I was vaguely aware of. Having spent time previously exploring Deleuze & Guattari and Dave's wonderings about the rhizome and learning--to the point of using a rhizomatic analysis for my thesis--I was very comfortable with the rhizome as a learning lens and was eager to see how community could build curriculum.
I see the need for a #rhizowhat primer or a space at least for entering the rhizome. So that has me thinking about how to welcome others into the communities that already exist.
Here's the thing about the rhizome as an idea for learning and community. The rhizome does not begin from nothing, it already exists and one enters in the middle of things. Past connections do not cease. There are ruptures and new lines of flight (D&G's term for offshoot ideas, connections) emerge. There is no One, no One #rhizo14 community, but rather a multiplicity of connections.
There was no goal of #rhizo14 to create a replicable, genealogical, scalable model of community as curriculum. The idea of rhizome is about decentering, it is about living with ambiguity and uncertainty and risk. It is in difference that ideas emerge, not with "but" and binaries, it is with "and," with multiplicities.
The rhizome is about decentering. It would make sense that many rhizomers are also critical theorists seeking to flatten, question and challenge power structures. Dave did a great job in #rhizo14 of being a catalyst for communication and connections with the weekly prompts while not being THE authority. The communities and curriculum developed as connections were made and the course/uncourse continued even after Dave was done. Those rhizomes are hard to kill.
I see things like crowd sourcing (Kickstarter, GoFundMe), the Maker Movement and social media as rhizomes, alive, growing, connecting with parts dieing off.
Trying to contain a learning rhizome is anti-rhizome. You can't replicate a rhizome. #rhizo14 will not be like #rhizo15. Let's let learning free to grow while we actively nurture the growth of connections with others.
I love this example of how ideas develop.
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Want to join in? Check out #rhizo15.
The concern, is that last year there were some tensions, some feelings of exclusion or lack of inclusion, conflicts I was vaguely aware of. Having spent time previously exploring Deleuze & Guattari and Dave's wonderings about the rhizome and learning--to the point of using a rhizomatic analysis for my thesis--I was very comfortable with the rhizome as a learning lens and was eager to see how community could build curriculum.
I see the need for a #rhizowhat primer or a space at least for entering the rhizome. So that has me thinking about how to welcome others into the communities that already exist.
Here's the thing about the rhizome as an idea for learning and community. The rhizome does not begin from nothing, it already exists and one enters in the middle of things. Past connections do not cease. There are ruptures and new lines of flight (D&G's term for offshoot ideas, connections) emerge. There is no One, no One #rhizo14 community, but rather a multiplicity of connections.
There was no goal of #rhizo14 to create a replicable, genealogical, scalable model of community as curriculum. The idea of rhizome is about decentering, it is about living with ambiguity and uncertainty and risk. It is in difference that ideas emerge, not with "but" and binaries, it is with "and," with multiplicities.
The rhizome is about decentering. It would make sense that many rhizomers are also critical theorists seeking to flatten, question and challenge power structures. Dave did a great job in #rhizo14 of being a catalyst for communication and connections with the weekly prompts while not being THE authority. The communities and curriculum developed as connections were made and the course/uncourse continued even after Dave was done. Those rhizomes are hard to kill.
I see things like crowd sourcing (Kickstarter, GoFundMe), the Maker Movement and social media as rhizomes, alive, growing, connecting with parts dieing off.
Trying to contain a learning rhizome is anti-rhizome. You can't replicate a rhizome. #rhizo14 will not be like #rhizo15. Let's let learning free to grow while we actively nurture the growth of connections with others.
I love this example of how ideas develop.
Want to join in? Check out #rhizo15.