Vectors of virus.

"Mais qu'est ce que ça veut dire, la peste? C'est la vie, voilà tout."

Albert Camus. La Peste.







"Mais pour parler de tous et à tous, il faut parler de ce que tous connaissent et de la réalité qui nous est commune. La mer, les pluies, le besoin, le désir, la lutte contre la mort, voilà ce qui nous réunit tous."

Albert Camus. 

Discours de la réception du prix Nobel 1957

"I'm a rat." 

I said to the teacher between classes.

It had suddenly occurred to me that I had identified my role.

It is an image that has crossed my mind over the past few days.

I get into places where I shouldn't.

I am a carrier of  viruses.

There are positive viruses, there are negative viruses.

Those judgements depend on your values.

A virus is value neutral. 

(I write that and then I find the idea strangely troubling.)

For better and for worse the internet is a vector of infection.

Elections are vulnerable to viral fake news carried by simulacra of recognised media.

Education systems are vulnerable to global means of measurement and thereby corporate exploitation.

Societies at threatened by dangerous ideologies.

Capitalism for example, infiltrates every aspect of our lives, our food, our beliefs, our leisure, our sex lives.

Powerful images of domination, sky-scrapers, souped up tanks, fine robes, freedom to roam, to build, to convert, to massacre, to save, to escape, midas-gain, fame, groupies, harems, monastic harmony, respect, heroism, glory, promises of eternal life in paradise feed on fantasies and fears of individual and communities alike.

Is it any wonder that the title of Deleuze and Guattari's seminal work was:

A thousand plateaux: Capitalism and Schizophrenia.

"There is no escaping the bloody rhizomes." He mutters...with resignation.

It is in this context that I am trying to make my way as a witness, as a carrier of values, as an educator.

Stateless, homeless, paperless...

I have been thinking about my role within my institution in a cross-disciplinary service that works with teachers and students across boundaries.

I have been thinking of how people who are stateless, transient, nomadic, struggle for the freedom to to roam or just to survive.

Interlude.

I think back to concepts of "freedom of movement" of "freedom of speech" , of "freedom of ideas" and then think back to  "explorers" and ensuing colonies.  

I think of a recent post:

Great explorations 
http://tachesdesens.blogspot.fr/2017/03/great-explorations.html 

I think of how white men carried viruses that wiped out indigenous peoples:

The Impact of European Diseases on Native Americans.
http://www.encyclopedia.com/science/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/impact-european-diseases-native-americans .

I think of this systemic racism which names the others "underdeveloped" and which underpins "our freedom".

Stateless, homeless, paperless...

Is it any wonder that Gypsies, Jews, immigrants, refugees, merchants (pirates?), have always been viewed with suspicion and yet have been vectors of trade, innovation, culture, and life?

What are the derogatory terms that have been used to talk of these people recently?

WHY ARE MANY DISEASES BACK, DECADES AFTER BEING WIPED OUT IN THE USA?
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/12/25/why-are-many-diseases-back-decades-after-being-wiped-out-in-the-u-s/

RASHID KHALIDI WORRIES THAT JEWS WILL "INFEST" THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION.
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/444457/rashid-khalidi-nazi-slur-jews-rats-infestation

DONALD TRUMP JR COMPARES SYRIAN REFUGEES TO POISONED SKITTLES.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/sep/20/donald-trump-jnr-compares-refugees-poisoned-skittles-twitter-reacted

People who are in between the lines are alive, kicking, and, it seems, dangerous to the status quo.

What the hell is democracy if it is not vibrant, debated, fluid?

"Give me your tired, your poor, 
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, 
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, the tempest-tossed, to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door."

Emma Lazarus.

What the hell is education  or learning if it is bounded by discipline(s)?

Freedom of movement is once again being restricted, walls are going up, old discourses are being mongered.

Nationalistic, patriotic, jingoistic, militaristic memes are being trotted out.

If ever there was a time for education rather than drilling or training it is now.

It feels like we are in the final death throes of a colonial body that has its arteries hardening.

In between...

And yet to move forward in my institution, in my community, I am compelled to use the language of those in power.

I am reminded of all the invisible work which goes on in homes and at work of those who feel a moral responsibility (often traditionally women) who are taken for granted, or for a ride.

I am reminded of all the invisible (to those in privilege) sacrifices which are made by people afar.

I glance up an instant to the ASUS branding on the PC I am using to write this.

To what relationships are we complicit?

Far from view, far from the heart, far from our minds.

The irony is that the only way I will ever get to speak with those people afar is via this PC.

The internet is both the plague and a potential remedy it seems.

How would I be so infected with the reflections of those friends of mine who live afar, who live in contexts where there barriers to their movement are for ever more rigorous/absurd, without these means to connect?

UK BANS LAPTOPS AND TABLETS ON FLIGHTS FROM SIX MIDDLE EAST COUNTRIES
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/21/uk-set-to-ban-laptops-on-flights-from-middle-east-countries

I am reminded of a piece written by Maha Bali and Kate Bowles:

On both sides: networked learning in a world of walls.
http://www.digitalpedagogylab.com/sides-networked-learning-world-walls/

I fall upon a quote that Maha and Kate use at the beginning of the article:

For when you cross a border, you are not only affirming its permeability, but also changing the landscape on both sides. ~ Lina Mounzer

And then this one:

"The only way to make borders meaningless is to keep insisting on crossing them: like a refugee, without papers, without waiting to be given permission, without regard for what might be waiting on the other side. For when you cross a border, you are not only affirming its permeability, but also changing the landscape on both sides. You cross carrying what you can carry, you cross bearing witness, you cross knowing that you are damageable, that you are mortal and finite, but that language is memory, and memory lives on." Lina Mounzer

And they finish their article with:

"This time of walls and travel bans demands conviction and ingenuity from critical digital educators concerned with gestures of openness and hospitality. To change the landscape on both sides of the walls that are being built to keep us apart, we need to show up and collaborate wherever we can."

Maha Bali and Kate Bowles.

Criss-crossing borders.

As I look towards OER and VConnecting session, as I look towards my work with CLAVIER and my own boundary breaking within my institution, I am convinced of the value of this open infection that I carry from colleagues who are afar but who touch me greatly in my everyday work.

After yesterdays conversations with my colleagues in France and Finland about our roles and possibilities of collaboration across the frontiers of our institutions, I sat down to collate and to reflect on parallel conversations about pedagogy in higher education that I had on Twitter the same day with people who help me think and give me courage to continue crossing the lines...

Educere

I suppose this post is what I care about most just now.

I couldn't sleep, it has to come out.






The drawing presently above captures a moment of love.

My daughter was sitting opposite me on the other side of the table and she was busy drawing.

I picked up a piece of paper and took the first drawing insrument I could find.

As often it is,  it was a biro.

After a while, I stretched over to pick up a felt tip colour pen to highlight my scribbling.

My daughter said: "They are my pens." 

I said, "Could I use your pens?" 

She replied, "Yes." 

Before she went to bed, she hugged me.

Drafting...

I had been trying to order my thoughts about what it is to be a "rhizomatic teacher".

I had already written much about different aspects of this in this blog, I decided.

I wanted to draw these aspects together to illustrate my thoughts more concisely for other learners.

I didn't want them ot have to wade through this bloody messy blog map!

I started off by looking for key terms.

I noted them down in a Popplet.

When I am thinking over complex questions, I often use a tool like Popplet.

It acts like bits of paper, post it notes, that I can manipulate on the floor.

I can make connections, I can insert images or videos, I can insert links.

I need to turn objects and concepts and people around in space to grasp stuff better.

At the centre of the web, I had noted: "Teacher as naturalist". 

There are two images I associate with this:

• a naturalist in a hide to be able to observe and so as not to disturb the wild-life 
• a naturalist taking a proactive role to release wild-life back into the nature.

To be a "naturalist" also implies felt presence. 

Such a 'felt presence' may be performed in a theatrical performance, I would reference Stanislawski and Chekov here or Jouvet.

I am not suggesting play acting, I am suggesting the actual and authentic embodiment of a role at an instant.

To act is also to be aware of those and that around - to be a listener.

I noted in the circles around 'Teacher as naturalist"

Icon or beacon. The teacher must be identifiable as an actor, as a reference even when back stage in the play.

I noted down blog posts which seemed to connect to this.

• Letter to Jim Groom
• Skimming Stones...

What sort of beacon or icon? I ask myself. 

Well I think the answer is that of the co-learner  , a role so dear to Howard Rheingold.

We are always both learner and teacher and researcher and...(well just add the role you want at the moment)

Howard or Alan Levine, or Jim Groom or Dave Cormier are not just brands they are caring humans.

They are actively going about their learning lives.

I noted down blog posts which seemed to connect to this.

• Co-learning what else?
• Le retour de Mickey L'Ange

I made a note of the moments when a learner feels out of his depth.

I think that the role of the 'rhizomatic teacher' is to enable the learner not to drown, if at all possible!

His or her, or the community's role is to be one of  a life-saver. 

I am reminded of Deleuze's comments in his ABCédaire about the loss of young people to drugs and his sadness at their misunderstanding of his work, and his concern that he could be held responsible.

At times, my learning life and my self-esteem has been saved by the kind, caring, attention of others.

I noted down a couple of posts to illustrate this:

• Ccourses saves computer from sure death.
• Ticker tape, Gandalf, Lazarus, and I.

One could add the roles of coach,  of sounding board to the one of life-saver.

I still believe that the teacher has a triggering role for learners.

He/she has a role of a conductor at times when it is possible to introduce support acts. 

He/she maybe an MC or a master of ceremonies.

I made a note of this in one of my last posts.

• MC MOOC

MC doesn't mean that the teacher has the star billing. 

He/she may act as useful connecting punctuation but his/hers is not the main role. 

Changing realities...

In the theatre of learning, today, teachers must understand that their classrooms must be open to the world.

The walls were always only virtual even if they were made of, and were considered, concrete.

My school doodling was proof to me that the classroom was a virtual reality, even if the school-master thought otherwise.

We are free, if we choose to be.

I noted down a post which illustrates this transition of teacher roles:

• All the world's a stage and we are just poor teachers.

This instance that All the world is a stage is a consistent theme to me...

I admit that Shakespeare has an iconic status for me.

I have, I have always had an obsession with space.

Making space is the most important role for the teacher, for the 'rhizomatic teacher'.

Making space also means enabling the learners to connect to other personal 'informal', learning spaces to which we as teachers are and must be excluded.

That implies enabling the learner to connect their spaces, their nodes, to choose their landmarks on their maps.

That implies using technology to connect diverse spaces.

Technology includes language.

I noted down three posts which illustrated this.

• All the world's a stage and we are just poor teachers.
• They get it eventually
• Space to think.
• Reclaim your domain.

Ultimately, the role of the teacher, of the "rhizomatic teacher' is about: 
enabling connections.

The teacher may be a hub, an interface, a model, of connecting to learn, of making connections learning.

I noted down a number of posts which demonstrate this. 

Frankly, I might as well list all the posts in this blog - but that would not be terribly legible! 

So here is a selection...

• No more package tours.
• Nothing very much
• Compagnie d'apprenants.

In order to model connections for others, I think that I have a responsibility to tell stories.

Here is a post where I tell such a story.

• Crag-hopping.

I seek to make connections to other people's stories.

I am, if you will, a story collector.

Here is an example of collected stories.

I do believe that Content is People...

The subjective of this blog is to share 'felt presence'.

I suppose this is what one might describe as my 'learning and as my teaching subjectives.'

Frustration with the tool...
Frustration with the frames...

I was getting frustrated with Popplet.

I wasn't sure how to embody rhizomatic learning or teaching adequately.

When I get to this point, I stop.

I do something else.

I might have scrapped the Popplet out of disgust.

I often do...

Drawing...

A few minutes later, I picked up a piece of paper and sat next to my daughter.

My first love is and remains drawing...

When  I was my daughter's age, my father, a clergyman would ask me to illustrate his sermons.

"I am useless at drawing." he would say.

"You are very good at drawing."

I felt empowered.
I loved drawing.
I loved playing a part in his work.

As I tried to sleep and not write this post, I understood what all of this is about.

It is about love.

It is about the meaning of education.

It is an act of EDUCERE.

I couldn't illustrate rhizomatic learning any better than drawing it out for you.

You can read what you like into my drawing.

It is my map.

Please take care of it.

It is, of course, and fortunately incomplete...

I believe my teaching subjective is to draw out learning...

I shall finish with a thank you note, which I tweeted to Dave Cormier.

@davecormier thank you for caring to make space for us to learn together. #rhizo15

— Simon Ensor (@sensor63) May 9, 2015

Thank you too.

Skimming stones...

I stared intently at the pebbles on the shore.

There might be one that would fly just right.




I picked a medium-sized pebble up, weighed it in my hand, turned it around in my fingers to feel the flatness.

Yes, the flatness was fine.

It was just heavy enough but not too heavy.

I placed it carefully in my hand like my brother had shown me.

This time, perhaps for the first time, I might have the measure of him.

Already, I was dreaming of six, seven eight ricochets across the loch, in the dimming summer light.

I gave the stone an almighty flick and watched it skim...-...-...-...-...-...-...-

Learning to skim...

I suppose, given a long time and a lot of imagination, I might have come up with idea of skimming stones.

I suppose the years that I had spent watching the older children play had helped me understand the gestures...

It had given me something to aim for...

I suppose that this time I was old enough.

I was ready.

In the end, I supose it had been really the time spent with my brother which gave me the desire to play this game.

Skimming stones online...

It was no accident that I became aware of Dave Cormier.

It was a natural progression from the first blogs that I started reading, a few years ago now, - those of Stephen Downes, Steven Wheeler, Graham Atwell and co.

The years that I spent observing from afar, picking up pebbles, weighing them up, skimming them privately in my little pond were preparation.

I enjoyed the activity of learning...networking and learning online.

I suppose that I was not aware of the progression or of the map that I would draw.

It is always easier to understand the map after one has left one's tracks...

Bounce 1: Rhizo 14

Like many others, I chose to do #rhizo14 because I was familiar with the stones which had been skimmed before.

I had seen the videos on MOOCs, studied the blog, the slides.

I wasn't going out across the lake without an idea of direction.

The fact that I would meet other people who interested me is not surprising.

I had been networking actively over a number of years.

Eventually, if you search intelligently, you find the people that you can connect with.

Bounce 2:  Connected courses

Once you have found a group of people that you can get on with, one thing leads to another...

The presence of Howard Rheingold and Alec Couros as faciliators for the #ccourses MOOC was attractive.

Over the years, I had developed the skills necessary to benefit from the experience.

I could have had the best teacher in the world in the past but would have been unable to participate fully before.

Bounce 3: CLMOOC

I followed some of my new friends...

Bounce 4: MOOCMOOC

I followed some of my new friends...

Bounce  4: Rhizo 15

Thinking about the week 4 challenge in #rhizo15 now: "Is a Dave necessary?" well I suppose now, the answer would be that he, as in 'the Dave Cormier', is not really so necessary for me today.

I like it when he is doing what he does.

I don't think that he is irreplacable.

He has done his job.

He has done a great job.

He has rendered himself almost redundant...

There are other interesting educators out there to work with that I was unfamiliar about before.

I am getting to the point where one MOOC can bounce into another, when connecting with some friends will lead me to more adventures around the web loch.

Is a 'dave necessary' to an cMOOC online course?

I would say that that depends on the skill-levels and the connections of the participants and what you define as course.

'Is a 'dave' better than a team of 'daves' - I think that it is potentially more interesting to have a team working as facilitators now.

Bounce 5: ....

Once you get the knack connecting the dots, connecting the MOOCs, skimming the stones becomes easier.

In the beginning you need somebody that can model activity, that can introduce you to others to practise with, to measure yourself against, to ask the right questions.

There was my brother...and there was a Dave...it could have been somebody else.

No matter now.

This is my story of skimming stones.

MC MOOC.

OK guys, we agree, you don't really need a matchmaker to meet that perfect partner but let's face it in these days of Bowling Alone, it sure helps!!!

There's no shame in getting a bit of assistance these days.

Those little crutches are everywhere on the net...

And we are not just talking about getting connected to the first lurker or troll.

Our members are a select, er... a very select group.

And we are not just talking about getting connected for a short time.

We're talking about life-long learning guys.

And we are not just talking about meeting people in your neighbourhood.

No Siree we're talking about GLOBAL REACH guys.

And we are not just talking.
And we are not just tweeting.

And we are not just chatting...

And we are not just hanging out.

Er hum.

Nope.

We are multiply and diversely connecting guys.

Just think of all those cool dolls, dames, lads, ladies, guys, gentlemen, and folk that you could meet!!

More and more people lead such busy lives that they just don't have time to waste on unpredictable encounters.

More and more people are realising that a little internet serendipity can open up new doors to new experiences...

Yep, those nodes have never been so close to clicking.
Yep, those neurones have never been so close to firing.

But, there's a catch!!

Many of us, are at a loss to know where to start with all those billions of people on line.

Where the hell do you start???

More and more people are realising that their lives may be enriched by meeting those special people from a completely different culture!!!

Down at the Rhizomatic Matchmaker Bar we attract cool creatives and deep thinkers from around the world.

How do we do it?

CONNECTIVISM

We like to call that secret formula: CONNECTIVISM.

Yeah CONNECTIVISM baaby...

How do we do it?

MC MOOC.

We are the only bar to have the one and only, the original: Mr MC MOOC.

(MC - Master of Ceremonies. MOOC - Matchmaking Openly Online Cheaply)

You don't believe we're different?

Yeah, you're right to be wary on the WWW (the Wild West Web).

Just Google Dave Cormier for a full press pack and glowing references...

Thanks to Mr MC MOOC David Cormier esq you will be able to meet plenty of suitably genuine people.

They'll be just dying to share their obscure blog posts, to speed crowd chat on Twitter with those cool #rhizo hashtags and get deep down on the thousand plateaux with those classy continental kings of chaos Deleuze and Guattari.


YEAH!!! 

OH OUI!!!

Dave Cormier preparing another Matchmaker meet up.

Dave hosts special events every Tuesday night when he speaks to y'all from the fireside of his Canadian log cabin and talks cosy like.

It may not last long but, god damn it, he's good.

It may not last long cos we are talking MOOC (matchmaking openly online cheaply).

That's why we are able to charge so little...

(Yeah Dave makes money on the drinks and the peanuts.)

Sure there are competing Matchmakers...

None of them are as Maassiive!
None of them are so openly open!
None of them are as between the lines!
None of them are so diversely connected!

Sure there are some corporations who are trying to blind you with that phoney MOOC 4 science.

They even pretend to have invented a new advanced form of MOOC!!!

HA HA HA HA...(etc)

DON'T listen to those charlatans!!!

DAVE is UNIQUE! 
(often copied never surpassed)*TM

Thanks to his recipe of Canadian charisma, deeply tricky challenges and crazily mindful games, people just let loose and start singing, dancing, opening up their hearts, writing poetry and sharing true rhizomatic looove.

Y'll never know who y'll meet in the Rhizomatic Matchmaker Bar...

Y'll never know who'll put that special comment on your blooog...

Y'll never know who'll be your curriculum  baaby...

And y'know what?

Before you know it, that crafty MC has disappeared to munch peanuts and drink Molson, leaving you to it.

I know it sounds odd but he's a MOOC magician.

CONTENT is PEOPLE!! *TM

Y'know we like to say in the bar that CONTENT is people.

Yeah... CONTENT by the people, for the people, with the people in the end y'know...that just makes people CONTENT.

And when we say CONTENT we mean CONTENT.

Special needs?

There's even a Rhizomatic Matchmaker Email list for those of you still living in the 20th century.

Rhizome? 

Yeah get lost in the rhizome, map your path, unleash those multiple identities.

Undiscerning members can join a busy Facebook group.

More reserved members can seek out the quieter corners of a Google Plus Community.

Curation fetishists have even started up a Diigo dungeon.
(we have no idea what goes on there)

If you are really wanting to get cosy, then just nip out of that hashtag stream and let fly a DM or even have that special private hangout.

So in the end, guys, y'll know who to thank for that special education!!

Yeah!!!

That's our boy....Dave Cormier.

And now join our girls from our RhizoRussia branch for that classic Karaoke chartbuster.

MATCHMAKER!!!

No more package tours...

I knew that I was hungry.

It was recognisably a restaurant.

There were tables and chairs on the terrace. It looked picturesque.

I imagined a number of tasty meals that I might like to eat.

When I looked at the menu I suddenly had absolutely no idea what I should choose.

Even my friend's descriptions didn't really help much.

I would have to taste the food for myself.

In the end, I closed my eyes, circled my finger over the menu and chose a dish by random.

When it appeared (see photo above) it resembled nothing that I might have pictured.

I can't remember what it was called.  I would have struggled (understatement) to pronounce its name.

I knew that Poland was to the east.  I had no picture of what the country might look like.

I had no idea of its beauty. I had no idea of the friendliness and openness of the people.

I had no idea of its customs, its costumes, its music, its landscape.

I was heading out into the unknown.

I had never learnt very much about Poland at school. Why should I have done?

There were enormous photos boarding up windows of imposing buildings in some of the streets.

They marked houses where some people had lived before the war.

Walking here, under this sun, feeling this warmth, I imagined those people doing the same.

There were not many people about.

It was extraordinarily peaceful.

We drove out of the town, my Polish friend and I.

We hadn't even left the suburbs of Lublin when suddenly I was confronted by a sight that I had told myself I didn't want to see.

It was standing there, in a convenient location just after a Carrefour hypermarket.

I had never heard of Majdanek.

Dealing with uncertainty...

How does one deal with the unexpected?

If I am writing this now, it is because I am starting Dave Cormier's course 'Rhizomatic learning: A Practical view.'

He starts the course this week with the theme of 'learning subjectives'

"How do we design our own or others learning when we don’t know where we are going? 
How does that free us up? What can we get done with subjectives that can’t be done with objectives?"

Package tours...

I think back to my teaching of English to students a few years ago. 

We were using a course book, with clear 'teaching objectives'.  

When I think about this word 'objective' now it makes me laugh.

It was one vision of what might have been 'the objectives', carefully explained in the teacher book.

The procedure was easy to teach. 
The exercises were easy to mark. 
It was easy for students to understand 'course requirements'. (that perhaps was 'the objective.')

What did this really have to do with learning a language?

There were postcard pictures in the course books of red buses,  Big Ben, and the Houses of Parliament.

Kids would go to visit monuments on package tours.

What they got to see would of course depend on the number on their bus or the choice of tour guide.

You can imagine them excitedly chattering away in French in Trafalgar Square.

What did they really understand about these monuments?

Why were they looking at these buildings and not doing other things?

Why were they reading those texts and not doing other things?

Who decided that this was educational?

What did this really have to do with learning a language?

I asked myself a few questions...

How could I learn to teach differently if I was not connected differently?

How could you learn a language if you were not connected to people who you might want to communicate with?

I resolved myself to maximise possible connections for myself as a learner.

I resolved myself to maximise possible connections for the students as learners.

A few years later...

I found myself in Poland with my English teacher friend discussing how to connect trainee English teachers with French English learners.

None of that had been planned. It was not in any teacher's book. It grew out of connecting widely.

A group of Polish students came to stay with my students in France.
A group of French students are going to stay with their new friends in Poland.

They chose to do the trip. It wouldn't necessarily benefit everybody.

I don't believe in universal recipes for success.

It is not clear what they will learn.

I am sure that they will learn much more English than the kids on the package tour to London.

I think that is how I see my learning job:

asking critical questions.
enabling diverse activities in diverse spaces
enabling diverse connections in diverse spaces
enabling diverse engagement in diverse spaces
helping out when people are totally lost.

(I might add to this list...)

Back in France...

I am happy going out into the unknown, towards the unknowable again 'with' Dave Cormier.

I do believe that we have to reimagine what education means today in this world which has been technologically connected 'for us'.

Discourses are there to be deconstructed...

I ask myself questions...

Whose objectives do discourses of 'learning subjectives' benefit?

Might we be paralysed or consumed by 'abundance'?

How do we encourage or enable students to thrive in this world of what is termed 'abundance'?

Might informational abundance become educational poverty?

What do we mean by learning?

What do we mean by education?

What do we mean by success?

How can we assess success?

Who should assess success?

What sort of community do we want to live in?

They get it eventually.

Working with young undergraduate students who have been institutionalised over years, the first battle is to convince them that they stand to gain something from not being force-fed. 

As photos of student strikes in our 'open-classroom'  remind us, independence is not at all necessarily part of their agenda when it comes to their education. 

Their independence they seek elsewhere, and they joyfully consume themselves without a care. 

Stand firm. 

If we are serious about enabling critical thinking, autonomous, creative learners, we are in for a rough ride. 

Stand firm. 

If we ourselves are not convinced of our own possibility to act independently as learners, then our plans go pshchhit. 

Stand firm. 

when they are scared, when they start to panic, when they demand content... their dummies. But, be prepared for compromise, careful planning, to provide clearly defined signalling: 'One way' (yours). This is a long campaign.

Patience, patience, 

years of conditioning don't come out in a wash. It takes years of insistence. 

Who said teaching was easy?

With Youtube, blogs, gdocs, anything publically shared it is beginning to be apparent that independence is a question of culture, generation after generation we are working with more assurance, connecting ourselves more widely for stability.  The students have stories which they tell which help us help future generations. When they cease to be students they continue to help us, help the others. If we are serious about enabling independent communities of learners, learning webs, then it ain't going to happen of its own accord. 

Concentrating on process rather than product, looking at long rather than short term outcomes, (Yes Simon, I am using the term outcomes. Crikey!) being open to the idea that alone we can doing nothing, is a start. Yes independence depends on recognising our limits, our incompetence and the human reality of emotional and material interdependence. 

We can not force others to be independent. We can strive to be independent forcefully.

We are not alone, alone. They get it eventually, if we care.

All the world's a stage...(and we are just poor teachers?)

21st September 2014:

Prologue
As I was reading my Twitter stream, I was  reflecting on my next act, which will speak of music, space and silence.  Then, a number of tweets and posts decided me to produce a revival of the following play: All the world's a stage...(and we are just poor teachers?)

So in no particular order here are some of these linked elements which inspired this revival:

Terry Elliott @telliowkuwp · 1h

RT @Bali_Maha: The “learner’s why” vs the “teacher’s why” http://ift.tt/1BZlWgT  #ccourses Sometimes the operative words is versus, yes?

Simon Ensor @sensor63 · 3h

Higher 'education' unravelling http://www.shirky.com/weblog/2012/11/napster-udacity-and-the-academy/ …

Terry Elliott @telliowkuwp · 1h

Disrupting the Playground - http://NYTimes.com  http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/21/fashion/disrupting-the-playground.html … Hilarity ensues as disruption is disrupted. #ccourses #rhizo14

All the world's a stage...(and we are just poor teachers?) A revival. 

Originally performed in September 2013.
And we are just poor teachers, who strut and fret our time, stage front, tutting and grumbling about dwindling levels of interest amongst a distracted audience...and then blogging about it (with apologies to William).

Oh the distraction!

Before it was just the turnip throwers in the gods,a rowdy rabble if ever there was. We got rid of them by employing muscular stewards and a brilliant policy of over-priced seats. William came up with a master-stroke: "Why didn't we organise a cheap knees-up for the mob and keep them far away from our classical theatre?" Masterful William!  Alas! Now it's spread to the monied classes in the posh seats. My monologue was interrupted last night by the dim lights emitted from their damned smartphones. Have they no respect for the thespian art?

The critics are out. The notices are rather mixed.

We organised a meeting of the company. What might we do to stop declining ticket sales? Helmut suggested we might get a microphone.  I thought that we should just change the play. Bob came up with a new fangled (and awfully expensive) pyrotechnic effect to thrill the stalls.  Walpole, as usual, was more than helpful. "Why didn't we try stilts?", he suggested (idiot!).

After a few beers, Harry started getting carried away. "Couldn't we introduce a flying carpet to give them a music-hall eyeball?" Frankly we were heading towards pantomime. Besides, such extravaganza would demand skilled technicians in the wings, an almighty budget, sponsors even! Walpole was charming, but seemed to only be able to drink tea in the green room.

Theatre in the Round

 In the face of declining audience behaviour, we ended up doing some research. Someone came up with "Theatre in the Round". We discussed this question at length. Should we use the same theatre building? Was it a question of taking out a few seats, moving the stage to the centre? With diminishing budgets and audiences, this was viewed as a feasible option. Rather than knocking down the protected classical edifice, we asked a local architect to modify it somewhat.

First reviews for our new season were much improved. We did have to modify our dramatic art rather to adapt, but it was better than leaving the theatre altogether and ending up recording jingles for soap powder. We gradually worked towards a concept of immersive theatre, with massive audience participation. That was excellent!

Street Theatre

We even ventured out into the streets. It was romantic, getting back to the roots, a life of the wandering player. The other day we bumped into the rabble from the gods. They were dancing and drinking in the park. There were masses of them. What on earth were they doing there just behind the band-stand? I later learnt that it was what is called these days "A Flash mob." They had all arrived there, apparently separately,  like an army of goddam ants via some Facebook page or some sort. For once, I was stumped for words. They, I thought to myself, would make a wonderful audience in the theatre.

The Seventh Art

I am no Eisenstein, but I admit to daydreaming between acts in the green-room. Might they not be persuaded to be extras in a little movie project of mine? Then the penny dropped. They were actually making a movie (of sorts). I had a dreadful Pauline moment, on my way to the theatre, I realised that I had, in this haphazard, unplotted cinema, become rather the extra. I sat in the wings, deep in reflection...