aww, thanks +Rick Bartlett – and l feel the same way as you and +Helen Blunden  Diversity and getting insight into how other institutions operate (higher ed, k-12, not for profits etc…), and different perspectives is a big part of the appeal of these types of open online learning experiences. I have always enjoyed the analytical nature of academia so rather enjoy the geek aspect of that too (though I think some of it is starting to go over my head a bit…! And funnily as I was writing this response got distracted by a thread on fb about how some of the more academically / theory focused people might be going a bit overboard and excluding and/or condescending those from a non-academic background. Interesting.  I think I’ve missed that undercurrent as I’ve only had pockets of time to go in and out of places and spaces and have only read a tiny fraction of what’s been posted. Just par for the course in an experience like this, when there are so many people, voices, posts, comments etc flying about.+Vahid MasrourThis is an interesting point to consider (ie whether rhizo is suitable only in adult learning). The suggestion reminded me of the video that +dave cormier posted of him questioning his 5 yr old son on his knowledge of dinosaurs (I saw it on fb, but may have been posted elsewhere too…not sure). I’m still getting my head around the whole concept of rhizo learning but I think this question goes to the perspective on the role of the ‘teacher’ / ‘educator’. I recall reading something from Dave saying that teachers will always play a role even in rhizomatic learning contexts…so using Dave’s video as a reference point, perhaps what the rhizo approach brings to teaching children is a mindset of not just focusing on simple questions and recitation of facts…but instead asking kids to describe their observations, explore, and come to their own conclusions of what that means, experiment, look at the evidence to see how their conclusions match up to this (i.e. supporting critical inquiry). And rather than giving them the answers straight up, encouraging them to seek them out (e.g. look things up, or ask different questions). This also means as their ‘teacher’ not being afraid of asking them open ended questions that you don’t necessarily know the answer to, so you can explore things together.  It’s a bloody hard thing to do though, especially after years of being conditioned by school to recite facts and come up with the ‘correct response’. (Which, btw, is also a lot of what corporate learning approaches perpetuate – simple knowledge checks with one ‘correct’ response…maybe because that’s what people expect, maybe because it’s quicker and easier to develop – probably a bit of both).

Hi +Vahid Masrour – I agree with you on the need to teach foundational knowledge and skills; and I don’t think that this is in conflict with rhizomatic learning – but what rhizo learning maybe does  question is HOW these things are taught. i.e. is it by rote, sitting kids dow, n and saying ‘hey kids, now we’re going to learn about numbers’ showing them a list of numbers, then asking them to identify, or count numbers 1-100? Or is it by getting them to understand the concept of numbers by helping them to make the links with an everyday context they are already familiar with? For example, if playing with a car you could introduce the concept of numbers by pointing out that the car has 4 wheels and counting them – or better – asking guiding questions which prompt the child to observe which parts of the car that look similar, and introducing numbers through this exploration. Yes, it’s probably going to take a bit longer to teach this way but they’re probably going to have a better grasp of concept of numbers compared to learning them through recitation.