Here is the archive of open visual thinkery in chronological order.
Oooh. Was that a buzz from the phone in my pocket? It’s probably someone tweeting me. Probably someone sharing an illustration of mine to their followers. They’ve probably got a bijillion followers… let me just check. Nope – must of just been a tingle in my leg – back to reading with the kids… (This…
Aha! So it’s not just me… When I first saw this, it face-slapped me like an un-hinged double hi-five. At the time, I was pitching an e-portfolio solution to different training organisations, which was really quite hit and miss. After a while, I realised the product I was selling was actually “Change” – and that…
An empty page. Create something. But what? I can’t think of anything. Why are you asking me? It’s your brain… But it’s so daunting. It’s too clean. I’ll just mess it up. And anyway, I can’t draw. An empty page is daunting. But it’s also an opportunity. You used to draw when you were a…
This week, the team at the University of Southampton organised an excellent Open Badge conference, which I really enjoyed taking part in. Doug Belshaw (his slides are here) and Carla Casilli were keynoting. “Let’s just badge everything” is probably not the best strategy in getting up and running with micro-credentials. Here are two questions worth…
When it comes to reading books as a youngster, my experience was one of homework, context, someone else’s knowledge, questions and comprehension. I thought of reading as something that belonged to school. A tedious necessity. Not something I would do for kicks. My kids experience is somewhat different. It’s choice, interest and curiosity driven, fascinating,…
“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?”…
It’s the things you don’t know you don’t know that’ll kill you every time…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…