The learning operations of a rhizomatic learner derive largely from new technologies that have now become commonplace to the ‘digital native’. A rhizome can be contrasted with a tree or shrub, which has a linear root system. Normal areas of study are thought to be tree-like when, after an initial point of focus, they develop a single body of content, which branches out as it extends upwards out of the soil. A rhizome, by contrast, begins anywhere and usually at any level and exits anywhere and usually at any level. It is virtually immortal. The focus of this paper is to ask about the literacy implications of rhizomatic learning. It notes three particularly relevant headings, namely, changes to the nature of knowledge with their implications for the challenge of learning, changes in psycho-social responses affecting the seriousness of the learning project, and changes in the character of being as a being-in-touch that affects the identity of young learners.

1. Digital Literacy and the
Rhizomatic Learner
Dr Fiachra Long
School of Education
University College Cork
Ireland

2. • Socio-cultural background
• What is rhizomatic knowledge
• Learning Style
• iContact and the posthuman turn
• 6 rhizomatic effects on digital literacy
2Dr F.Long, School of Education UCC

3.  Background

4.  (Australia) Lankshear, Peters and Knobel, 2000 found
ever increasing use of computers by children
 (Australia) Zevenbergen and Sturt, 2007 put this figure
at around 91-92%
 (UK) Somekh et al. 2002 –10-12 yr olds spend 3 times
the amount of time on their computers as they do at
school, 4 times by age 16
 (Belgium) Valcke et al. 2011 found that 91.2% of
primary school children surf the internet at home
 (Ireland) Ipsos Mori Report, 2008 indicate around 90%
 (Korea) Sook-Yung andYoung-Gil, 2007 indicate
internet use by school-goers at 92.8%
Dr F.Long, School of Education UCC 4

5. SOCIAL MEDIA USE IN IRELAND
 Population 4m approx
 2013 1.2m access to
tablet
 2013 1.6m
smartphones
 Blurring of online and
offline worlds
 55% of 16-24 year olds
said that they could not
live without their
smartphone
 63% of 16-24 year olds
said that the last thing they
needed to do at nighttime
was to check their contacts
on Facebook
 70% of 16-24 year olds
said that they preferred
texting to talking
 28% of Eircom sample said
that they were getting tired
of it…
Dr F.Long, School of Education UCC
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6.  Knowledge

7.  a linear root system and
which develops into a trunk
and branches
 Root and branch study
 X ‘stems from’
 The core and the periphery
 The linear model
 Stable repository of
knowledge
Dr F.Long, School of Education UCC 7

8.  Establishes a starting point
 Builds up a field of knowledge
 Separates knowledge into fields
 Grades material by its difficulty
 Accepts the guidance of experts
 Allows expertise in one field and non-expertise
status in other fields
 Teacher teaches from a height and with
authority

9.  a ‘taproot which has ‘a
multiple , lateral, and
circular system
boasting all the tactile
associations that this
connectivity brings’
(Deleuze and Guattari
in A Thousand Plateaus
(1987, 5)
Dr F.Long, School of Education UCC 9

10. Begins anywhere
Has become bite sized, incremental, arbitrary
Jumps (expressed in hypertext i.e., not linear or
narrative)
Time-critical (time of access important)
No separation between the ‘disciplines’ - a new form
of generalism, a move away from specific disciplines
The claim to a generalist expertise that transfers
across all disciplines (transfer skills)
‘bricolage’ professional identity (Hatton, 1988)
avatar
Dr F.Long, School of Education UCC 10

11.  Learning Style

12.  Circular, not directional (teleological- linear-logical)
 Blended with ‘media’ or ‘mob’ knowledge
 ‘applied, problem-centered, transdisciplinary,
heterogeneous, hybrid, demand-driven,
entrepreneurial, network-embedded…’ (See Le
Grange, 2011: 750)
 views traditional knowledge as boring and dated
 Views progressive learning as too tied to student-
centredness
 Orthodox expertise can be bypassed
 Is distractive (involves play as an important feature)
 Can mimic computer games
 Drill and skill activities (Watson, 2001; Somekh, 2004)
 Exploration games via GoogleEarth, GPS software etc.
 Robinson Crusoe-type building activities (Minecraft)
Dr F.Long, School of Education UCC 12

13.  ‘to the distress of many adults, children’s
media culture is increasingly
distinguished by a kind of pleasurable
anarchy and sensuality’
(Buckingham, D. (2007). Beyond Technology: Children's
learning in the age of digital culture. Cambridge,UK/
Malden, MA: Polity, 81)
Dr F.Long, School of Education UCC
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14.  iContact and the Posthuman turn
 The humble tic
 The spider and the fly
 The cyborg

15.  Tactile, touch, digit,
digital
 Being in charge of
knowledge by
means of a machine
 Humans enhanced
by machines
 Touch with a gap;
touch without a gap
Dr F.Long, School of Education UCC
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16. • Why touch is the most dangerous
sense
• iConnect as my identity
• Welcome to the Borg
Dr F.Long, School of Education UCC
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17.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCYrW-G9Y6
 Dr Kevin Warwick
of Reading
University
Dr F.Long, School of Education UCC
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18.  6 rhizomatic effects on digital
literacy
 Based on Wright, Andrew (2004), Religion, Education
and Post-Modernity (London/ NewYork:
RoutledgeFalmer), p. 34.
 A rejection of binary opposites as a way of
analysing the world

19.  Dyads (finding/ imposing meaning on the world?)
• Thinking by contrasts
 Left and right
 Up and down
 In and out
 Subject imposing on object
 Object imposing on subject
19
Dr F.Long, School of Education UCC

20.  The establishing of the principle of
intertextuality where it is not possible to
separate disciplines into discrete
discourses
 The trend towards grafting and thus what
is new is grafted on to the old – old
institutions with new meanings.

21.  An acknowledgement of différance which
indicates not only difference but a
deflection from meaning-making claims
• The sense that there is no answer
• The sense of complexity preventing any clear view
• A recursion to Locke’s principle of ‘tolerance’ and
away from truth claims

22.  The give and take of appearance, the
fragility of signs, the ‘rature’ or seeming
ambivalence of representation
(Baudrillard).
 The element of trace –a kind of
resemblance or reminder that is as much
emotional as cognitive, as much sensory
as intellectual

23. • Socio-cultural background
Is this a paradigm shift in human learning?
• What is rhizomatic knowledge?
It is a new type of knowledge
• Learning Style
Quite different from before
• iContact and the posthuman turn
The new dalliance with machine­based life
• 6 rhizomatic effects on digital literacy
23Dr F.Long, School of Education UCC