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During this module, I have put a lot of time into reviewing literature on various learning models, including specifically connectivism and transactional distance. While there has been a lot of focus on simply reading the existing literature and piecing the bits together, I have also looked at the implications these models have for education in the 21st century.
One article that really stood out to me is Thomas (2010), “Learning spaces, learning environments and the dis’place’ment of learning.” This article compares traditional classrooms to an environment that promotes learning in a connectivist environment. Thomas points out that the classrooms we currently use in most education environments--where the teacher has a specific and physical spot in front of the students--are primarily the result of the ‘production line’ model of education. This model allows us to spread knowledge from a single source to many students at the same time, which is presumably more efficient than teaching students as individuals or expecting students to learn the material at their own pace. He also points out that online learning models are based largely on these broadcast-learning models, and that students who are used to this model assume that this is how learning should take place.
However, if we take learning to be a connectivist activity, this model does not contribute to learning because Information flows in only one direction. Thomas (2010) suggests that learning environments be remodeled to allow for more complexity, to allow more interaction between students and to expand the concept of a “learning space” to include both physical and virtual learning spaces. Physical spaces should include not only classrooms, but all parts of campus or anyplace else where learning is likely to occur. Virtual spaces include well-known online communities like Second Life and Facebook, which allow the user to claim their own personal “space” within the environment, but which also allow flexible means of accessing other content in a manner and order that makes sense to the user. Thomas also points out that educational goals that are based on content will not fit in this new model, but that models based on objectives allow more flexibility in the learning styles.
Another concept that struck me is Cormier’s (2008) concept that learning is rhizomatic, and I think that this metaphor rings true in large part. The term rhizome is a botanical term that is used to describe a plant that propagates through root cells rather than by seed. Common examples include strawberry plants, gingerroot, potatoes, and poplar trees. As Cormier states, a “rhizomatic plant has no center 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” (p. 1). To further clarify this metaphor, any of the given nodes can be removed from the existing network of nodes and planted elsewhere, where it will grow into a new network of nodes that is genetically the same as the original network.
The concept of rhizomatic learning was new to me until doing the research for the paper for this class, but as a gardener who has had to dig up many wild strawberry plants in my day, I think it is an excellent analogy to explain the concept of connectivism. The goal of learning today is not to memorize facts. Facts can be easily found using virtually any search engine, and there is no real need to memorize facts unless you are likely to use them on a regular basis. Instead, the goal of learning should be to understand how concepts are related to each other--how they form a network of knowledge. In some cases, these may be very simple relationships, like what happens to water when you heat it to 100 degrees Celsius, or how to transform a mathematical equation into an Excel formula. In others, the relationships are much more complex.
An example of the a more complex relationship between concepts happened just this weekend, in an online discussion board in one of my classes. The topic of the conversation was electronic waste, and students were asked to view a video called The Story of Electronics (2010) and write their responses to that content. Most of the responses have been very predictable, but one student wrote that she could not believe the information was true on the grounds that it would cost too much money to send the old electronic devices overseas to be recycled. I pointed out that while it certainly did cost money to ship the products, many companies work on a “least expensive” method of disposal. If it is cheaper to ship old electronics to China than it is to build an environmentally-friendly recycling facility in the States, then there is little incentive to keep the materials in the States. The student finally understood the point as a different way of seeing the topic, and I could almost see the rhizomatic node extending to the other students in the class as she made the connections. It is also likely that she will remember this discussion more than in those discussions where she simply agrees with what is presented, and that she will spread the understanding to others around her, even if they are not her classmates.
I have also experienced the student that Thomas (2010) portrays, where the learner who has grown up learning in classrooms is convinced that learning must occur in classrooms, using the “sage on the stage” model of delivery. I have tried to transform one of my classroom-based classes into a format where there is interactive discussion during class time (usually NOT with me in the front of the room), while other individual activities are completed outside of class time. A couple of students in the class have expressed their dissatisfaction at the fact that they are learning without me teaching, and my primary response is to smile and point out that they are learning anyway. My goal is to guide them through the topics they are expected to understand by the end of the course, without necessarily telling them exactly what they need to know.
I think we have a long way to go before we can reach a truly rhizomatic model of education that extends across physical and virtual learning spaces, but I also think that we can get there if we focus more on the goals than on the means. It will mean retraining instructors as well as students to move past the concept that learning must happen in tandem with a teacher and a formal education environment.
References
Cormier, D. (2008). Rhizomatic education: Community as curriculum. Innovative: Journal of Online Education, 4(5).
Storyofstuffproject (2010) The story of electronics (2010). YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sW_7i6T_H78
Thomas, H. (2010). Learning spaces, learning environments and the dis ‘placement’of learning. British Journal of Educational Technology, 41(3), 502-511.
