Thinkery - Open Visual Thinkery

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

Levelling the Playing Field

This is a thought inspired by the Open Badges conference organised by @szerge in Barcelona recently. I am increasingly aware of how privileged I am, and how easy it is to accept the state of the playing field as just “how it is” as opposed to questioning it’s unfairness, and doing something about it. An…
Social Fabric

Here’s a thought from a conversation with @szerge at the EPIC conference in Barcelona. The underlying message points to the network of trust relationships that exist in a badging ecosystem, and how each assertion forms a relationship between two or more people or bodies. These relationships weave together to form a social fabric. I’m not…
Awesome Awards

Some very wise words from Charles Kennedy that I came across the day he died. In the last couple of years I’ve been amazed at how much pointless Education System tinkering goes on by politicians with a certain view of how education should be.
A Constellation of Pathways

“When you are deep into designing your badge system, pause. Look outward: consider the bigger picture that your earner will see. Imagine the thrill of being a learning explorer charting new territory with badges as your guideposts! Now with that new perspective, rough out some potential badge pathways that do not solely include your badges—that…
The Motivation for Reading

I didn’t really read much as a kid (I need to hear the words) until my GCSE teacher encouraged me to read some books he thought I would be interested in. I remember he challenged me to read 10 pages a night. Soon I was hooked – it was slow going – but I was…
Open Badges – now with Endorsements

This thought was created for Doug Belshaw‘s DML blog entitled “Extending Badges“.
I am more than just my grades

When you hire a person what do you look for? I look for what I would call character, and a spark… Yet grades are so big that that although voices say that other qualities matter, its hard to hear them. Could Open Badges be a game changer in terms of recognising value, in all its…
Education Technology

I love Lego, and I wonder how much it played a part in feeding my creative (and constructivist) side. Problem solving, learning to pivot and change direction, creating new worlds with others. Needless to say my kids are all over it…
Badge Taxonomy

As part of our work for City and Guilds, Doug Belshaw and I decided to formulate a Badge Taxonomy – not in order to classify badges per se, but to evolve our understanding of how badges (and their intended purposes) differed. After a whole bunch of stickies and some brain crunching, this was the (half-baked)…
Verbal Sunshine

Isn’t it though? I need all the encouragement I can get – so it only makes sense that I should be generous with it too…
Your Experiences have value

I now realise that we are our experiences, and due to having associative brains, the product of our individual experiences means that we each have a unique angle on life. I suppose it then depends on whether we see this as an advantage or not…
Why I love my MOOC

The last MOOC I completed (the science of everyday thinking, University of Queensland) was one of the best learning experiences I have ever had. Arguably, its the first course I have done solely for the learning as opposed to the credential…