Last updated on December 28th, 2018 at 06:43 pm
I’ve been reading a few different blog posts and Facebook posts about #rhizo15 – with people declaring their various subjectives (if you don’t know what I’m talking about see – Learning Subjectives – designing for when you don’t know where you’re going.
It occurs to me that one of the things that people struggle with in cMOOCs the need to define their own objectives for the course. As learning professionals, we are so programmed to think that a course needs to have some form of learning objective. It is of no value if we don’t learn something out of the course – in some way or another, our understanding needs to be deeper after the course than it was before the course.
For me, the biggest subjective/objective of #rhizo15 will be to make one or two or maybe three true new friends. I want to connect with new people in a way that goes beyond being colleagues. #rhizo14 brought me closer to several people – close enough that they sent me care packages to help me through my breast cancer treatment (thank-you Maha, Scott, Bonnie, Sarah, and Kate). These connections went beyond being collaborators on conference presentations and research papers. These connections are much more valuable than any book learnin (as my dad would call it).
They are not just friendship connections, they are are also professional connections. It isn’t just about fun and games. The people that I interact with as a result of #rhizo14 have pushed my book learnin too. I’m reading articles and books that I otherwise would not have. I’m learning about the process and barriers to creating collaborative autoethnographies. Dave’s creation of rhizo14 helped me find the courage to create my own free online course (http://shouldiblog.org). There are so many different ways that rhizo14 has influenced my life, that go beyond simply participating in a ‘course’.
So, my biggest subjective for #rhizo15 would be to make some new connections. To meet and get to know some new people. To participate in new collaborations. To authentically and truly grow my network (not just the number of people who follow my blog or twitter handle). How will I achieve this subjective/objective? I’m going to take a lesson from Scott Johnson here – and reach out to people on their blogs and on Facebook. To provide meaningful commentary on other peoples content. Somewhere in that process, I expect that there will be a spark – a new friendship or two will be kindled out of the experience. That is my main subjective/objective for my participation in #rhizo15 – for me, this is the entire point behind participation in a cMOOC.
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