Landing : Athabascau University

Commentary: Rhizomes and Blogging

Dave Cormier's post in his blog on rhizomes and blogging makes an excellent point when he stated that "the number of self-selected, personally empowered bloggers will be overwhelmed by those who are being told to blog." There is going to be a need to place private blogs within walled gardens, enabling a public and private face to emerge, enabling what he calls both rhizomatic knowledge (tentative, provisional knowledge built through consensus by group collaboration) and, for lack of a better phrase, a type of knowledge more representative of slow blogs.

Dave Cormier described his passion with blogging, how his passion for recording ideas promoted him to get started and keep going. He commented on how others explained their experiences with blogging as being a crystallization of their ideas over time, and how ideas tended to flow along with their personal histories.He defined the rhizomatic web of knowledge as "knowledge that can ebb, flow, mutate, and grow from a variety of nodes as they crop up and the contents of those nodes grow" (Cormier, blog post).

Dave identified the once prominent place of online reflective journals, where bloggers blogged because they either simply wanted to, they had something to say, or they wanted others to hear what they had to share. He has raised a critical point in the ethical use of requiring students to blog, and asked the question of what happens when those who blog are no longer self-selecting, when they feel they must in order to compete? He asserted that these are not things we should even be teaching people, moving learners away from the way they wish to work. He then argued that this sense of being extroverted and wanting to broadcast your ideas to others does not represent the majority of society. Dave calls for a type of blog which has posts that persist over time. He would like to see a type of blog that would unite the creative energies of both the introverted and extroverted to interact freely.

Comments

  • Alexandra Brierley March 16, 2009 - 2:26am

    Hi Glenn,

    Thanks for posting...this is where I think privacy is important.  As somewhat of a situational introvert, I can relate.  However, the reluctance to expose my thoughts and ideas to others for fear of criticism and/or judgement would probably subside as I felt my competence/mastery increase.  The only way to do that, is to keep learning, reflecting and organizing my thoughts, and revealing only the ones I feel ready and willing to receive feedback on.  Maybe my blog is just for me - it still brings the value of providing a forum for self reflection and growth.

    I think students should be required to blog if the course calls for it, and even if their writing is stiff and insincere, it puts them through the motions, and perhaps, something genuine will eventually flow out.  I would guess that if the blog has to be public, that feedback is required, much like a discussion board for the class. 

    As for feeling that they need to compete...well, much as I hate this, it is the way of the world.  Life is largely about doing what we are required to do at home, at work and at school - and finding value in doing what needs to be done. 

    So, I think everyone should blog, but should also have the power to mark whatever they wished "private" wherever possible.  (That way, we could put our half baked thoughts and ideas somewhere to mull over and return at a later date to develop further Smile)

    As for interaction between introverts and extroverts, I think when people are moved to respond, when something speaks to them, they simply do - you couldn't ask for a safer environment to do so - far less risky than face to face.  I do like the idea of persistent posts, but architecturally, that presents a bit of a challenge...blogs are archived right now, and when properly created, categorized accordingly.

    Thanks! A.