#DiGiWriMo – November 29 – late entry

#HortonFreire could not have arrived at a better time. I needed the fresh infusion of Myles Horton (whom I had heard of, of course, the founder of the great Highlander Folk School) and Paulo Freire (was it #rhizo15 or #moocmooc that got me mainlining his stuff?) for my presentation at CUA’s Bridging the Spectrum coming up in February.

Sleep descends. I’ll finish this in the morning.

So I discovered this reading group though my subscription to and regular reading of Maha Bali’s blog about education, Reflecting Allowed. If you are interested in education, you should be reading Maha Bali’s cutting edge commentary. But back to the subject. The reading group is reading a book co-authored by Myles Horton and Paulo Freire, “We Make the Road by Walking.” There are already tons of great posts and blogs, which you can find tweeted at #HortonFreire.

On time, because I am dusting off papers I’ve stored in folders on book shelves, in previous blog posts, in emails, and on my computer desktop for this talk I want to give on Deleuze and Guattari and the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy.  The final draft proposal abstract (150 words) is due today.  Here is what I have distilled it to:

There has been much discussion about the content of the new ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. This briefing does not add to that content discussion. Instead, it focuses on how we perceive the framework itself and how that perception might influence the way we use it. I introduce the rhizomatic approach, developed by Deleuze and Guattari in their philosophical study, “A Thousand Plateaus.” In botany, rhizomes grow as a network of roots with no true center. Using features of rhizomatic learning, i.e., connectivity, heterogeneity, multiplicity, asignifying rupture, and cartography as a way to approach the frames, we see how each frame might relate to any others, how information literacy develops and transforms as it passes through various frames, and how the interplay of the frames captures information literacy as a process.

My teaching practice this semester has been limited to one-on-one interactions at the reference desk  (not inconsiderable!). But I am finding interesting pedagogical practice with my docent training at the Library of Congress. A tour guide is a special kind of educator, it is one-shot instruction, and you have to focus on getting that handful of facts across to your group in the 45 minutes that you have them. I have labored to nail down a central theme and relate it to the various artifacts that make up the presentation, but I remain torn between my traditional love for the spirit of the library as an aggregation of relationships between information seekers and information sources, and my new found love for all the art, sculpture and architecture that adorns the walls and the space of the library. I am settling on a compromise and a unity. The two are one.

So a lot is going on. I got through the introduction and first chapter of “We Make the Road by Walking” last night. It’s a dialogue, which makes it a bit clunky to read, but musically it is a duet, which makes it very interesting and soothing to listen to. Duets are the best music, right?

You pick your own poison, or medicine, so to speak.