Mindmaps - another rant

I've said it before and I'll say it again - Mindmaps really get my GOAT. AAARGH. I consider myself to be a visual thinker. Freewriting - well I'm not sure if it covers all the bases I need it to cover. I was trying to better understand where the connections are between my interest in embodied experience, learning, new technologies, art, games and play. HOWEVER these are not discrete interests - the whole point is that they're interconnected and I'm trying to get a better sense of how they come together in my head because I feel like there's a deep connection and once I've discovered it my whole approach to learning technology, learning and..well, all these subjects will feel less splintered, more directed. So I try the brain which seems to be one of the more sophisticated mindmapping tools out there and DAMMIT it just doesn't help. i just end up with an enormous, amorphous web. Come on. Is there ANYONE or ANYTHING OUT THERE that can help me unwravel the knots in my head?

Ah Secondlife - the endless conunderum

There are two parts to my lifes passion/interests...

one is a total fascination with innovation and the new - maybe this is also slightly intertwined with a wish to be the first at something (not a very good trait I admit).

then there's another side that simply want to support learners - to make sure they have the most wonderful, inspiring, enjoyable time whether or not it's supported by digital or more traditional technologies. If one-to-one, a desk and a big sheet of paper is required. so be it. It just has to work. And the more simple it is the better.

So..Second Life or Virtual Worlds in general have become my life's quandry. I'm fascinated by them. i love the way they connect me, I love the anonymity (at times), the visual quality, the way you can develop new relationships, feel emotion, really live and experience. And I want to explore them - to really know their educational value - so where it's good it can be really good and where it's bad we can finally forget it!

I think probably being married to an even great virtual world nut encourages this urge. At the same time I have a deep cyncisim of its value in University. So much hype, so many failed or questionable projects, so much bad design. Is it worth exploring or not? Is it the technology that I want to explore more than I care about students' writing experiences?

Well...there are places where I see it might have a place.

My director mentioned she'd like to see our mentors connecting with others around the world. How might that be done best? teleconference? wiki? videocast/skype? Or 3D world? What does connecting mean? The most perfect result would be one in which all students are immediately teleported together - for free, immediately and met face to face, physical presence, body language and all in place. So, not possible.

Second life comes some way towards that but then a whole lot of other aspects come into play? The effort/return balance comes into play. There's a huge amount of learning that needs to take place in order for SL to be useable for a start...

But - it means it might be worth exploring.

And maybe it's worth giving it a go. Just to see what we can get out of it. Then maybe I can launch or bury it once and for all in this job at this time!

Nanowrimo and an interesting looking writing blog: write a little everyday

http://wastingwordsonlowercasesandcapitals.wordpress.com/

http://www.nanowrimo.org/

Writing warm up games

We've decided it might be useful to come up with some little freewriting warm up games to loosen up users before they plunge into the scary thing that is a timed, no going back freewrite...gives them an idea of exactly how it works....

**Little freewrite warm up exercises:

http://www.manchesterbookaward.com/article/152/ - ask them to write about a single word. Share your ideas with a group/see what other people wrote...break down the inner critic, realise it doesn't matter what you write.

http://wastingwordsonlowercasesandcapitals.wordpress.com/2008/03/16/a-fun-writing-warm-up-2/- create a short poem from a set of given words.....

Some kind of group game played using http://www.kongregate.com would be amazing - something where you connect with others...and can be silly. then you do your freewrite and then can still share...the writing game Lyn's playing on the wiki with a couple of others might be fun - where you have to sort of fight to get your bit of storyline in and it can be as surreal or add as you like but ..maybe if you stop writing for a second and pause then you lose the thread and someone else gets it - a bit like just a minute in fact! Hmm, which encourages a certain level of babble......

Maybe a game a bit like this: http://practicallycreative.net/2007/08/01/c-art-egories/ where you're given a category and then you have to describe in as many words as possible 12 items from that category. Or where you have to describe an object without using particular words...

OK last one...it might simply be possible to get them to write a few really short freewrites on very simple things that have nothing to do with an essay - what they ate for lunch, describe a friend, the best thing that happened today....means there's not too much extra designing (or more to the point...programming) to be done!

Technologies to support visual and spatial writers

It's something I've touched on before here....the fact that there are very few technologies that really support visual and spatial thinking. OK mind maps - actually the barely do it for me or many other students.

Some tools that are FAIRLY useful are...

visual thesaurus
visual mindmap (thinker something or other)
google image search, corbis, getty images

What else do we have?
OCR on phones MIGHT help with little scribbles
and photos to flickr is handy....

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6V2K-412RXGS-6&_user=983321&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=983321&md5=fce3996524409daec43e8ae3347a3fce
This article goes a little further

Shows different ways to brainstorm offline using paper...can this be facilitated online?

Explore the value/importance/significance of graphics in inspiring ideas, and engagement before starting and essay

Great article may have relevance

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6V2K-412RXGS-6&_user=983321&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=983321&md5=fce3996524409daec43e8ae3347a3fce

This looks interesting

http://www.thebrain.com/?gclid=CKWa1omd8pYCFRyR1QodUmpNYA#-47

especially if it was collaborative

Freewrite on what I want to do this year

Write this blog to explore and reflect on my role/activities and OUR role too.

Research into benefits/challenges (probably more to the point) of VW for Writing Centres?

Research where tools can really make a diff - thinks it connecting but who really knows? Link this to the book chapter

Hybrid workspace research?

Draw a mind map to collect all my ideas and interests - not just for work but also for embodied learning.

Connect WC mentors with others internationally? - Could SL be involved?

Explore idea of creating an online persona- difference between mentoring on and offline.

Online facilitation workshop

Attend workshop facilitation workshop!

Rework the graphics - greater sense of struggle - that looking nat and tidy - good grammar etc isn't helpful.

Overall aim for this blog

Consider one tool everyday and possible value

Look at a need that hasn't yet been filled - ideas

reflect on how this relates to the wider university practice - what it is to be an LT in the WC, link to my personal interests and blogs.

Online collaborative visual, spatial, mind-mapping tools

We've been thinking about mind-mapping online with others - because really a lot of learning objects are so isolated but it seems that getting people to share ideas about their essays before they get started. If you're looking at ways to engage - and I thinking really when it comes to writing the secret, the real thing you want to achieve is engagement with the subject - in order to achieve this in general I think you need to be connected to others, other peoples ideas, people who you can talk to, (unless perhaps you're a genius who can have these discussions with himself and doesn't need other humans to sound things out with). Even if you don't like other people's ideas - it helps you establish your own differences, your own opinions, what you believe is important. So Martin and I are interested in exploring visual, spatial, collaborative (in real-time) mind-mapping tools.

Note to myself - also explore:

http://www.ning.com/
http://voicethread.com/#home.b409

And first mind-mapping tool to test:
http://www.comapping.com/index.php?launch=true