I was reading this bit of fluid thinking by Aaron Davis and this thought popped in to my head, so I had to draw it. The idea of different tributaries combining to form a wide river at the source, and the wide displacement of the river’s delta as it meets the sea surely fits the education system metaphor. However, reflecting on what I had created, two things bothered me. Firstly, the stretch in the middle is uniform. Secondly, the whole river system follows the path of least resistance…
Author: Bryan Mathers
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Open Badges paint a better picture…
Dr. Doug Belshaw and I got together to think visually about Open Badges resulting in the blog post “3 reasons open source needs Open Badges” which featured this piece of thinkery.
Macro credentials are like broad brushstrokes on the canvas, whereas micro credentials could fill in the detail. Oh, and I wish I had wallpaper like this…
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Dyslexia…
I really enjoyed making this visual thought, commissioned by MindshiftKQED to go with “Dyslexia and the Wider World of Creativity and Talent” by Holly Korbey. However, the bit that really buttered my parsnips (a Christmas metaphor, if you will…) was creating the Picasso image. I found that by trying to imitate his style I started to see a bit more clearly what the Cubist style was trying to say, which I suppose, I really wasn’t expecting…
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What next for Open Badges?
Blockchain, the underlying technology used by Bitcoin, is cool. At least, I think it is, if I could only get my head around it. A group of thinkers (including Serge Ravet) from the Open Badges Community got together to start thinking about how the Open Badge standard could be used inside the Blockchain. What would it gain, and more importantly to me, what would that look like?
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Hey! How’d you do that?
I’ve been asked many times about how I go about creating visual thinkery – so here’s a first stab at illustrating the tools I use. Even though drawing with a stylus on my iPad was my path into drawing, I prefer to use pen and paper as the fastest way to capture and develop an idea.
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Brain bender
I’m fascinated by how the brain takes meaning from its visual sensory input. By adding highlights and shadows, suddenly drawings come alive, as the brain interprets depth and adds meaning. My 10 year-old was doing pretty well at getting this 2D->3D brain trick to work (oddly enough, someone at church had used it to talk about perspective). Obviously, I couldn’t resist having a go myself!
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Higher Education
Ok. If you’re an academic, and Higher Education and formal learning is the pinnacle of all knowledge and wonderment, then this may be mildly insulting (er… apologies for that…). However, the thing I’m most grateful to my University for is that it allowed me to reinvent myself (in a few different ways). Growing up in a small town in Northern Ireland, my University years were very formative and thoroughly helpful at a time when I was deciding who I was going to be. As a friend pointed out though – in the UK it’s become a very expensive way of reinventing yourself…
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Fooling around at the airport
There’s always inspiration to be found – even at Heathrow’s terminal 5, which (since the day after halloween…) is featuring a festive feel. I’m not sure if this actually makes any sense about class – but I certainly had fun creating it using the new photo feature on the Paper by 53 app I regularly use on my iPad.
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Digital DNA – women in tech
The recent Digital Leaders conference was entitled “Building Digital DNA”. Jacqueline de Rojas (VP at Citrix) spoke about women in tech (or the lack thereof).
I was thoroughly impressed with some female students I met a few weeks ago whilst doing some visual thinkery for UCL Academy. They had no problem seeing themselves as future engineers. Sure enough, looking inside the school, I could feel the project-focused creative engineering vibe flowing through their learning spaces.
I believe this is a cultural problem, and we would do well to continue to revisit this question.
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Choosing a badging system
With any solution there are often three different approaches: bespoke, modular and off-the-shelf. Choosing the most appropriate path is more difficult than it seems. This is certainly true of selecting a Badging system. There’s also value in learning through trying multiple approaches at the same time, and assuming that as a result unseen requirements and pitfalls will become visible. Read more about Badging systems in #OB101…
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Badge Platform Questions
A while ago, Doug Belshaw and I were working on the #OB101 course, in order to help others think about OpenBadges and how to dip their toes in the water. Some of this thinking relates to a discussion at the Badge Alliance community call about some OpenBadge platforms not really being open.
So what should you consider when thinking about an OpenBadges platform? -
Maths & English
This thought came out of the table discussion amongst Primary and Secondary teachers. Other subjects deemed less important than Maths & English are being squeezed (and in some cases squeezed out) of the learning landscape.