Better Late Than Never: P2PU #RHIZO14

Earlier this month, I've seen Dave Cormier tweet all about his class at Rhizomatic Learning using P2PU MOOC Platform.

I have no idea why I didn't think of enrolling.

Actually, there are two things (or three, probably) I can think of why.

1) The word Rhizomatic sounds too foreign to me. The word itself cannot bring prior knowledge to gain motivation in engaging myself with it. I know I've read about it and the word comes from the Rhizome plant. BUT the thing is, I don't even know what a Rhizome is... I have not encountered what a Rhizome even looks like (because of this I just started googling for images, but still... no idea what it is). It goes back to learning principles huh? (i.e. motivation, engagement, prior knowledge, effort) But I'm enrolling now, because a lot of the tweeters I am following keep putting hashtags of Rhizo14 and retweeting it. So here I am, joining the bandwagon :) ... Even if whenever I see the word "Rhizo", a picture of a Rhino pops in my head. Might as well join the MOOC class so that I can change my perception that a Rhizo is NOT related to a Rhino (or is it?) ... And maybe I'll finally know what a Rhizome plant is.

2) I didn't enroll in the MOOC because, it's not Coursera. I have no "biases" on platform preference ( or maybe it turns out I do), but I just felt like Coursera is my comfort zone. All the courses I've enrolled in are in just one website. It's like the same case in joining a lot of social networks or downloading a lot of messaging applications. They all serve the same purpose! Why the need to be part of em ALL. Ahh.. but the difference is, coursera isn't offering Rhizomatic Learning. and eeeeverybody is hashtagging #rhizo14 ... I want to be part of the loop :(

and the 3rd reason why I didn't think of enrolling is probably because at the back of my mind I told myself I would be dedicating this entire month on reviewing for my comprehensive examinations which is why recently I'm focusing on Learner-Centered Teaching/Education/Curriculum/Assessment. I WOULDN'T wanna fail my exam right? ... MOOCs can be less priority over REAL brick and mortar schooling (redundancy intended)... right? ..

But here I am... it's what the heart wants.

I just serrrriously need to work on my time management now because next week, my Coursera course on "History and Future of Higher Education" by HASTAC will start. It's a FutureEd initiative that I also still have to read more about. http://www.hastac.org/future-ed. I'm in this course because I typed "education" in Coursera, and clicked "enroll" in ALL courses that popped up. heh...

Like I said, too many things on my plate right now... So my strategy is. I will find out more about it as soon as class starts :D

It's a good thing that my 4th module for the Foundations of Teaching and Learning MOOC classes won't start until February. It's one of those MOOC series I wanted to do continuously as I have mentioned earlier in this blog. It has a series of 8 MOOCs, which started last September 2013 and estimated date to finish is December 2014 (one year.. I know).

So... let's focus on hopping in the Rhizo14 bandwagon shall we?

Better Late Than Never.

I'm posting links below that I should be reading first before jumping into class but, I'm late!!!! so... I'll just post the links here first and get back to this later :D. "Virtually" going to class now as soon as I publish this post and link it to twitter (a must..)

https://p2pu.org/en/courses/882/rhizomatic-learning-the-community-is-the-curriculum/
http://davecormier.com/edblog/2014/01/12/your-unguided-tour-of-rhizo14/
http://www.teachthought.com/learning/rhizomatic-learning-is-a-metaphor-for-how-we-learn/

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*RHIZO14 is the hashtag for the "Rhizomatic Learning" MOOC provided by Dave Cormier via P2PU (Peer 2 Peer University)