{"id":794,"date":"2014-01-29T23:09:20","date_gmt":"2014-01-30T06:09:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wayupnorth.ca\/blog\/?p=794"},"modified":"2014-01-29T23:09:20","modified_gmt":"2014-01-30T06:09:20","slug":"rhizomatic_independence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wayupnorth.ca\/blog\/2014\/01\/29\/rhizomatic_independence\/","title":{"rendered":"Rhizomatic Independence – Elusive"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stephen Downes, reflecting in\u00a0 OLDaily<\/a> on a study of emotional affordances in a MOOC, urged “a need for participants to become more self-reflective.”\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah, I’ve been a butterfly, or a shallow root\/spindly shoot popping up here and there, mostly in FB, but occasionally going on a blog-reading binge.\u00a0 Or intending to go on a blog reading binge, then the first thing I read cries out for a comment, and I’m stuck for a half hour or more trying to get my thoughts into words – does this make my point, do I mean what I ended up writing, no – this is trite and that’s overstating my position, how do I get my point clarified?<\/p>\n

So, trying to take Stephen’s admonition to heart, what did I think and learn about independence with my limited participation in week 2 in Rhizo14<\/a>?\u00a0 I heard Dave Cormier admit in our hangout that he thinks “RE-inforcing” would be a better verb than enforcing, but he couldn’t resist provoking a discussion. I learned that I still have a long way to go with realizing the ideals of independence I hope to teach my adult literacy students. To enforce independence at this point would be like abandoning them. (did I write that somewhere else? sounds familiar) So I need to keep the idea of autonomy before them while providing a support structure.\u00a0 I keep looking for tools.\u00a0 Technology holds some promise.\u00a0 Text-to-speech allows them read the newspaper without getting bogged down.\u00a0 It’s even delightfully like cheating, taking a shortcut around sounding out words, all the while subversively allowing them to enjoy reading.<\/p>\n

I myself am only a partially independent learner, given my reaction to Dave’s proposal in the survey<\/a> to cut the formal course to 4 weeks.\u00a0 I have what seem like revealing insights, get excited about something I’ve discovered, but hearing myself writing posts and talking in hangouts, it sounds flat and shallow to me.\u00a0 Like Joseph Conrad’s Kurtz on his deathbed.<\/p>\n

So now I’ve faced my limitations, What will I do to keep learning?\u00a0 It may be slow going but it’s rewarding to participate and feel included in the community. Even if I’m not a major contributor, I will keep joining.\u00a0 Only in hindsight do I realize some of what I’ve gained.<\/p>\n

Quotes found in my flitting about this week – linked to the owners’ blogs<\/p>\n