And even in conversation, particularly online, stating your assumptions about what others mean/ questioning them can help avoid the dialogue of the deaf and/or insults.

I love this Carol - puts my feeble effort in its place;) I really must do DS106 but thanks for all the tips. I was struggling with Windows 8.1 today too.

Books can be intentionally or unintentionally used as instruments of power but so can videos, images, poems, blog posts, comments like mine and yours. The orality that we are to use in contrast to books is no different. I have been thinking a lot about orality and to be honest I think it's even more complicated than books;) Just one of my thoughts was about the orality of Socrates - from what I can see we glimpse him through others interpretations and that distance seems to contribute to almost a cult celebrity status around him. I don't long for an orality where a powerful man gets to have long conversations with a group of young men. I suspect that I would identify more with the women who fed them and washed their clothes. <end of rant>

Whatever the question, your answer is good to me as its richness lies in its exploration of the space between the polarities suggested by the question. I am thinking of creating a more multimedia response but the alternative response may be answering by (text) dialogue such as this, distributed rhizomatically across blogs. Of course for me it's all a subterfuge for my real reason for being here - answering my own question So what is the idea of rhizomatic learning and how can it contribute?

Moving ! you had come from a home environment that encouraged questions, dialogue and exploration.- into a hostile environment of school. I was comforted that some of your teachers allowed you to negotiate your assignments.

I loved what you said about trust - and wondered if you had seen this blog post by Kay http://adventuresinlifelonglearning.blogspot.co.u...

I think that formal education has so much to learn from the best of learning in the home that you and Kay describe. As parents (and I am conscious of my own past imperfections in that role) we don't tend to think of ourselves as educators - we are standing beside our children as they learn.
Your parents must be so proud of you.