Go your own way

Here's a little confession: I have always been a bit of a rebel. I'm not keen on too many rules and structures being imposed, and I have a healthy disrespect for authority. I have always been that way, and I don't mind admitting it. I have been labelled an Edupunk because I practise bricolage, the 'do it yourself' approach to personal learning, and this manifests itself in my professional practice too. If someone says to me 'it can't be done', or 'you shouldn't do that', I will probably try to do it anyway (sometimes twice) just to prove them wrong, because I'm bloody minded like that. Give me a boundary and I will try to climb it, undermine it or circumvent it in some way. That's just the kind of person I have turned out to be. This personality trait doesn't endear me to particular people, and I'm not that popular in certain circles, but I don't lose that much sleep over it. From as far back as I can remember, I have not been dependent upon other people, and although like everyone else, I care what others think about me, I have always gone my own way regardless, choosing the way that in my judgement, I think is best for me. That is the reason I have evangelised for personal learning environments, and have openly criticised many of the institutional constraints I see being imposed upon learners of all ages.

It was with great interest then, that I read Helen Crump's blog post today. Entitled Rhizomatic me, a learning nomad, it focuses on self determined learning, and draws on the work of Dave Cormier (and the theories he drew on from the post-modernistic thinking of Giles Deleuze and Felix Guattari around Rhizomes, nomads and schizos). In this form of learning, as Helen explains, we each take on the disposition and behaviour of a nomad, (or indeed the Flânerie of Charles Baudelaire) wandering seemingly aimlessly in the space we create for ourselves, to discover what is important for us. This is reminiscent of the personal learning pathways I described in one of my own past blogposts. Helen explains:

'According to Dave Cormier, nomads (or those with a disposition for play as exploration) “have the ability to learn rhizomatically, to ‘self-reproduce’, to grow and change ideas as they explore new contexts”. So, what does “to learn rhizomatically” actually mean? And, where does the term come from? Well, rhizome refers to a way in which certain plants spread. Often understood as a creeping root stalks, rhizomes go out horizontally and interact with their environment. Certainly, they’re messy, disorderly and difficult to control, but at the same time they’re resilient and have a lot of important qualities, which allows them to adapt within their ecosystem. As such, rhizomes have come to represent a model for learning for uncertainty and, like the learning process of life itself, they’ve no beginning or end either.'

The rhizome is certainly a powerful metaphor for chaotic learning, and is personified in the nomad. Nomadic learning clearly appeals to many in the digital age, whether or not they recognise that that is what they are in fact doing. They don't have to be rebels or Edupunks either. Self directed creation, repurposing, organisating and sharing of content (i.e. user generated content) is one of the dominant modes of technology use in both formal and informal learning, and is increasingly pervasive throughout the Western World. The tools nomads have at their disposal (smart phones, mobile devices, social media) enable them to learn on the move, whenever they wish, in their own idiosyncratic styles, and at a pace that suits their personal preferences and lifestyles. As a result of this, some are questioning the future of formal education and the nature of knowledge and learning is being redefined. For many, 'going your own way' is becoming a very important lifestyle choice. How about you?

Photo by Kris Williams


Go your own way by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.