Thinkery - Open Visual Thinkery

Here is the archive of open visual thinkery in chronological order.

Learning – to what end?

“Dad? What does this spell? F-L-A-P-P-E-R?” My 5 year old is an engineer in the making. He has a book of how to make a whole array of paper planes. And so he starts his self-crafted apprenticeship. “Dad? Can you help me with step 10?” But this is the Expert Section. “Can you just do it?”…
Entrepreneurship

It’s the things you don’t know you don’t know that’ll kill you every time…
OER16 – Open…

What a distraction twitter is – especially if it means drawing something. I’ll see something on twitter, have a thought, and before I know it, I’m trying to create that thought. I came across Jim Groom tweeting the title for his keynote at OER16, and I couldn’t resist. I highly recommend tuning in…
London Underground

The London Underground map is a design marvel. It makes your paths straight. Just looking at it lightens your load. On seeing it for the first time (as a fresh-faced 20 year-old), I thought someone had intentionally worked a bottle shape into its design (essentially the outline of the Circle line.) After attending an excellent after-hours…
What’s inside an Open Badge

It’s easy to talk about open badges without really understanding what’s inside (it’s just a digital badge, right?) There’s actually a whole bunch of stuff inside. The badge class is like the template. All badges issued from a certain badge class will inherit those properties. The assertion relates to the recipient of the badge and…
Pink…

The first time I went to see Mount Kilimanjaro, it wasn’t there. Get up first thing tomorrow morning, just as dawn breaks. So I did. And there it was, that awesome monster of a mountain. And it was pink. I grew up in a colour-coded world. In Belfast, even the kerbstones are painted. I’ve realised…
The long burn

A cracker of an idea. A business idea. I should start a business with this idea right now. Figure it out in my spare time and then just set it up… For me, startup never happens like this. It starts with a hunch, a curiosity, almost an irritation. So much uncertainty. So many unknowns. It’s half-baked…
To create is to notice

Let there be light! And there was light, and it created a really interesting shadow… The skill of noticing detail’s. Like any embedded skill, it takes a lot of practise. It’s like a teacher and a badly placed apostrophe (hee hee!) – it jumps out of the text and hits you on the head –…
This is my own hand

Listen… aha! There’s one! But what does it look like? Why are they saying that? Just start drawing – let’s see what shapes my pen creates, and go with it… Some of my earliest visual thoughts come from keynotes at education-related conferences. I would try to zone in and capture just one thought the speaker…
Fixed Mindsets

Fixed mindsets. In my experience, these are easier to spot in others when you rub up against them (the mindsets that is…) but a lot more difficult to spot in your own self.
Tests – Big in Education…

A few years ago, I completed a MOOC (massive open online course) on the Science of Everyday Thinking. I really enjoyed it. I tried to put my finger on what it was that helped me stay the distance. I liked the bite-sized nature of it. The videos were punchy and conversational. The edX platform was…
Understanding dyslexia: the reading circuit

The idea of the “reading circuit” really helped me understand dyslexia a bit better. Fluency takes effort. I’ve always been a slow reader. I didn’t really ever enjoy it. Turns out it’s not the actual material, as in the last decade, I’ve listened to a grillion (not quite as much as a bijillion but more…