Personal Blogs

My first thought when coming across the concept of rhizomatic learning was to try to distinguish it from connectivism, whilst recognising the things they had in common.  I came to the conclusion in focussing on the rhizome metaphor, that the former centres even more on the process than the product of learning when compared with connectivism, to the extent that learners themselves are seen as the curriculum - they decide the learning goals and the journey to those goals is a large part of what is studied. 

Describing rhizomatic learning, Cormier (2008) writes:
'A rhizomatic plant has no centre and no defined boundary; rather, it is made up of a number of semi-independent nodes, each of which is capable of growing and spreading on its own, bounded only by the limits of its habitat' (Cormier, 2008). 

Could I imagine implementing rhizomatic learning?
The current educational climate may be a great time to explore the rhizomatic learning (Cormier 2008) strand of connectivist thinking. I do look for opportunities to create and manage courses partly based on connectivist principles. And right now, when ALL teaching is online because of COVID-19, is an ideal opportunity to be more experimental. 

So far in my limited reading on the topic of rhizomatic learning, was I convinced by it either as a learning theory or as an approach?  I was convinced by it as a learning approach because it does capture how people learn - not in a linear manner. But I agree with Verhagen (cited in Kop and Hill, 2008) that connectivism does not offer anything not already present in existing learning theories and I would extend the same critique to Cormier.

How might rhizomatic learning differ from current approaches?
Anyone can experience what this means by reading about it on Cormier's blog site, Rhizomatic 15 where he offers some real-life insights. His video, 'Embracing Uncertainty – Rhizomatic Learning in Formal Education' (2012) is enlightening of his view of the rhizomatic metaphor of his theory learning. d106 facilitated by Jim Groom contains some elements of rhizomatic and connectivist learning.

What issues would arise in implementing rhizomatic learning?

In my K-12 teaching/learning context,  where not all but many students are used to more passive, deferential form of 'learning'. They see the teacher as the font of knowledge - the one who not only directs learning but defines it in terms of 'knowledge', 'facts' or 'information'. As an example, they even ask permission to speak, even when asked to express themselves freely. For many of them, connectivism would be in conflict with the traditional concept of a course, though it is still possible to get them to enjoy task-based, self-directed learning. At their developmental stage, however, they are not quite 'world-wise' enough to know how to use that 'power' responsibly. 

References

Embracing Uncertainty – Rhizomatic Learning in Formal Education (2012) YouTube video, added by Dave Cormier [Online]. Available at http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=VJIWyiLyBpQ (Accessed 21 October 2019).

Kop, R., & Hill, A. (2008) ‘Connectivism: Learning theory of the future or vestige of the past?’ The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 9(3). https://doi.org/ 10.19173/ irrodl.v9i3.523 (Accessed 21 October 2019)