Two Canadians Sending us on a Vision Quest
Having enrolled in the online Connectivism Course with George Siemens and Steven Downes I was wondering if there is anything about these guys being Canadians; and it occurred to me that there might be something of the vision quest related to their intentions (though not necessarily something of which they are consciously aware). The course is encouraging us to explore what connectivism ( or online connectedness) in education means to us, through a series of blog posts and other online tools that we can explore.
A Vision Quest as I understand it is an native American rite of passage that has crossed into the collective unconscious of many Canadians. It is where a young man person goes in isolation into the wilderness for a time until they have a realisation of something beyond their normal consciousness. On occasions young Canadians travelling in Australia have got into serious trouble when spontaneously deciding to start their vision quest by wandering into the outback – a very dangerous (and simultaneously seductive and fascinating) thing to do. (I’ll be writing more about this in later posts.)
As George said in his introductory video to the course ‘it’s going to be a little bit scary”. While not looking forward to that bit, I’m certainly looking forward to learning something new about myself and learning in general.
