I took this photo of the Urumbamba River in Machu Picchu, Peru last year.

(To my regular blog readers, you may wish to skip to the bottom first to get some context for this post)

On tonight’s etMOOC Twitter chat, I expressed concern about being able to “keep up” with all the parts of etMOOC. To be clear, this is because I really wish I could keep up. I love the learning and am interested in all the topics. Some I’m more familiar with and some are areas of new learning for me. However, I had a busy life before I signed up for etMOOC and that hasn’t changed. So, I’m fitting the learning in wherever and whenever I can.

I’m glad that I have managed to catch the Monday Blackboard Collaborate sessions and they have been great. I really connected with this week’s topic, Rhizomatic Learning presented by Dave Cormier, for a couple of reasons. First, I love me a good metaphor (I know, people said it wasn’t a metaphor). Second, I have a distinct memory of when, early in my outdoor education days, I learned about rhizomatic plants. I remember being fascinated by learning that trees like aspens and sumac can colonize a whole area because they are rhizomatic. The metaphor then works wonderfully for me… for my learning also goes underground sometimes to then pop upwards where the conditions are favourable.

Blackboard Collaborate is a new tool for me, but very similar to Adobe Connect which I used for weekly meetings for a committee I was on a couple of years ago. Still, one more tool to learn… and only tonight did I find out that I can use it on my iPad as I read comments by people doing just that in the archived session I watched. It’s too bad, because if I’d realized that I could have participated in the connected leader session last night while I sat and watched archery. Still, one more arrow in my ed tech quiver for next week!

I’ve also really enjoyed the weekly Twitter chats. Having experience with #satchat, I’m stepping easily into this one. Even here, though, I’ve learned a new tool: Tweetdeck. Whereas I’ve used Tweetchat for #satchat, this took some getting used to as the tweets in the columns flew by.

Still, there are areas for growth… I joined Google+ but haven’t done much with it since joining. I didn’t create an introduction to me. And lastly, I’ve been disappointed that I haven’t found the time to blog about etMOOC until now. The prompts have been intriguing but I’ve only been able to carve out so much time and have devoted it to Blackboard collaborating and Twitter chatting.

But this is an adult learning experience. It’s not for marks. It’s for me.

And so, when Alec Couros (@courosa) replied to me — “I try to lose the notion of ‘catching-up’ w/ Rhizomatic Learning. Think river, not reservoir. Drink when thirsty” — I realized that’s what I have been doing and it’s okay. Thankfully, though, the reservoir is there too and I look forward to seeking out some of the archives over the next while.
Background: I am currently participating in etMOOC. What’s that?? Well, other than reminding me of one of my favourite children’s books, it is a MOOC about Educational Technology. Okay, you say, I think I know what educational technology is, but what’s a MOOC? A MOOC is an Massive Open Online Course. I last heard there were some 1400 participants in this course from all over the world and from a myriad of roles. The course is led by well-respected connected educators. And all of this is free!