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Rhizo#15 Week 1 response:

• There is no such thing as objectivity. What we know and say and see is always partial, situated. As a writer and researcher, I try to make well-reasoned claims, but they are never not subjective.
• I don’t always know where my research will take me when I set out (although I do have a pretty good idea).
• I have a pretty good idea where my research will take me because (a) I’ve done a lot of research (b) on education technology.
• Sometimes I know what I want to write; sometimes I figure it out as I write. It’s harder to write if I don’t know exactly what I want to say.
• Writing is always difficult. I’m a writer, but some days I have to force myself to do write.
• I make To Do lists rather obsessively. I procrastinate if I don’t have a clear deadline. (I sometimes invent tasks and deadlines for myself.) If it’s not on the To Do list, it doesn’t get done. e.g., email.
• I work for myself, so I have to keep myself on track. No one else will. I know this about myself.
• I’m not sure I’m very “goal oriented,” particularly as that phrase is typically used. I don’t care about wealth or fame. I sure do like ticking items off my To Do list.
• What is a task? What is a goal? What is an objective? How are these different? How might we confuse these (in learning as in life), in part because tasks fit neatly onto a list? Tasks on To Do lists tend to be quite concrete and perhaps more easily accomplished. I feel accomplished when I complete a task on my To Do list.
• Feeling accomplished – is that subjective? Or objective?
• Who has the freedom to decide what to work on? What to learn?
• Rank these in order of power and privilege: Object. Subject. Objective. Subjective. Objectivity. Subjectivity. Subject is (probably) first. Subjective is (arguably) last.
• To claim objectivity smacks of privilege. Most of us are necessarily viewed as subjective. We are marked. The unmarked – the objective – is the often unmentioned adjective: white, male, heterosexual, able-bodied, from the Global North, etc.
• There is power is getting to set the learning objectives.
• To set the learning subjectives – is there an element of privilege there too? Who gets to stake these claims? Yes, sure. Ideally all of us do; all of us can; all of us could. Ideally.
• Who can afford to do so? How do we make sure those affordances are available to everyone?