It has been a wild day so far.

I started the day getting started with the new Rhizo15 course. Per Dave’s suggestion, I dove into the Facebook Group and the Twitter Conversation. All of this led me to two great blog posts. One was by Laura Pasquini. Laura’s post led me to Socioviz (which just happens to connect with my research on learning networks) and the work of Nathan Brubaker on grading contracts. The other by Worried Teacher, led me to explore emergent outcomes.

Along the way, I read some more posts and more tweets, and then decided I needed a place to write, to participate. I used to blog a good deal, but got away from it. I discovered my old blog has been hacked, and so here I am.

I have been in the middle of redesigning our Ed Tech Program, and thought I was nearly done. But now, I am totally not sure anymore. I keep telling myself, it’s not innovative enough. It doesn’t address the real possibilities of technology in education. Like the rhizome. So, I have decided to spend the six weeks of this course reimagining these programs and courses. I will share more as I make my way through them.

And now I expect to head down the rabbit hole of tweaking this new WordPress blog.

So, does this mean, I have been rhizomed?

15 thoughts on “Have I Been Rhizomed?”

  5. Gerald, I’m not one of those experts but have experience working with teachers who resist technology because all they see are the adult learning barriers in themselves around technical skills they don’t have. This blocks them from seeing any room in tech for themselves and their teaching imaginations. That’s a scary looking rhizome half octopus thing you have there.

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  6. Is a program on ed tech ever really done? Emerging technologies will forever cause churn in the program. The best we can do is plan for constant change …

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    1. Rebecca, I absolutely agree with you from a content perspective. The tools will change. I laugh now when I look at my syllabus for an Emerging Technologies course from only 3 years ago! My concern for the program now is less about content (although I am definitely concerned about content) and more about “tone” and structure. In my current thinking, an ed tech person should be able to generate the kinds of conversations we are having in #rhizo15.

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    1. Maha, Thanks. I am looking forward to the discussion. My concern for the program now is less about content (although I am definitely concerned about content) and more about “tone” and structure. In my current thinking, an ed tech person should be able to generate the kinds of conversations we are having in #rhizo15.

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  8. Gerald, my experience with the tech folks I worked with is they were the least imaginative people I’ve ever met. Everything by the manual and the bad part is they would openly block creative attempts to modify the LMS and their central position in enabling course delivery gave them more power than the instructors. To be fair, I worked at the worst college on the planet.

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    1. Scott, I have had similar experiences, although the IT folks have gotten much better recently. But we’ll see when I propose some pretty radical changes to Blackboard, like adding sentiment analysis to student work.

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      1. Gerald, have to disclose that I worked at the world’s worst college so my estimate of staff behaviours is twisted a bit. The IT people have been there forever in an isolated town where online teaching is virtually unknown. The whole idea that computers could be used for education instead of just monitoring climate in a pig barn is too new to have caught hold here. The college’s reputation makes recruiting impossible and the town is backwoods shit-hole–but weirdly interesting. I worked with Moodle and changes were handled by a contract host who fought with our staff so it might be that your Blackboard is less confusing. Good Luck.

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