probes

Start Digging!

Posted on by tmulligan

Thursday April 4, 2019
The Valdosta School
To: Information archeologists (scholars interested in digging deeper)
Re: Di6!t.org

@tmulligan
#Di6!

So what’s this then? An outgrowth of Dig!, a card game concept aimed at integrating research with meaningful play (free play > structured play > serious play), di6it.org is the repository of marginalia, errata, secrets, inscriptions, and ephemera (all the good stuff found in libraries) related to the ongoing exploration of this expansive topic.

* Generally speaking, the objective is to discover the deeper meaning and implications— the symbolic facets— of the banal things of everyday life (or, perhaps, to imbibe them with symbolism) to inspire students to look and listen more intently to what the world around them is trying to reveal.

academia · discoveries · ephemera

Circumscribing Spaces

Posted on by tmulligan

 

[xyz-ips snippet=”post-header-date”]

The Valdosta School

To: My Dear Students

[xyz-ips snippet=”post-header-title”]

[xyz-ips snippet=”post-sidebar-authorlink”]

[xyz-ips snippet=”post-sidebar-category”]

[xyz-ips snippet=”post-sidebar-tags”]

[xyz-ips snippet=”post-sidebar-id”]

Seemingly mechanical and relatively unintimidating, can the practice of assembling collections of concepts and terms related to content areas of interest— of building taxonomies— be harnessed to render accessible, navigable the intellectual spaces we wish to explore?

Time to (re)design and glean those punked out immersive best practices.

academia · suspicions

Petty Authority

Posted on by tmulligan

 

[xyz-ips snippet=”post-header-vsechno”]

[xyz-ips snippet=”post-sidebar-authorlink”]

[xyz-ips snippet=”post-sidebar-category”]

[xyz-ips snippet=”post-sidebar-tags”]

[xyz-ips snippet=”post-sidebar-id”]

Evil involves forethought.

It’s all in the planning.

The ultimate futility of bureaucracy 
(when it distracts from and derides collaboration and community)...
academia · big ideas

Zero-Barrier Data Collection

Posted on by tmulligan

 

[xyz-ips snippet=”post-header-vsechno”]

[xyz-ips snippet=”post-sidebar-authorlink”]

[xyz-ips snippet=”post-sidebar-category”]

[xyz-ips snippet=”post-sidebar-tags”]

[xyz-ips snippet=”post-sidebar-id”]

Problem: the contemporary lust for data, in combination with the relative immaturity of collection tools and prevalence of ill-conceived implementations, has led to atomization of otherwise useful bits of raw information into indecipherable piles of, at best, unintelligible, misunderstood, and therefore largely unactionable factoids.

Insight: by limiting user prompts to core questions and providing fluid one-click access to related topic questions, the coherent mental map of topical and thematic interrelationships necessary to engage in the process of reflective writing— an intensive cognitive process requiringsynthesis, articulation, and ultimately, empathic consideration— can be supported and, perhaps, enhanced.

Solution: separate and minimize the architectural constraints (i.e. mechanisms of data pre-structuring or pigeonholing if you prefer) at ingress and introduce an initial analytical pass after the input stage is completed to map provided responses to expected/required structure.

Uncategorized

(re)search!

Posted on by tmulligan

Friday, July 29 2019
The Valdosta School
To: recipient
Re: (re)search

@TM
#123
#hashtag
<< #820 >>

820

“it creates an environment where people need to talk to each other to get the whole story.”

Space is the place for re-search. A distraction-free oasis capable of creating the conditions for systematic intellectual inquiry about important questions.

How to focus and operationalize the wisdom of crowds? Crowds that are now equipped with smartphones?

> polls
> unannounced quizlets
> participatory problem solving tasks (scavenger hunts, etc.)
> use time constraints and competition to keep kids on task


Atomize! Reify. explode > recombine | divergent > convergent

An experiment in collaborative knowledge-making, Dig! is about conducting research in bite-size doses of insight through an iterative process of aggregating, analyzing, and curating fragments of accumulated information.

An oasis in a torrent of information overload and meaningless repetition, Dig! is a knowledge repository that aims to be the antidote for two world weary academics prone to intellectual pursuits rather than clerical whack-a-mole.

ephemera · probes

The Thread of Continuity (revisited)

Posted on by tmulligan

[sc name=”post date”]
The Valdosta School
To: recipient
Re: subject

@TM
#threadofcontinuity
< #256 
TBD >

What are the various flavors of continuity? And how best to represent them in graphic form? Below are icons created for the Dig! deck to represent the various continuity relationships players are challenged with creating when playing a card.

Start node
Extension node
Variation node
Change node
Seque node
Decision point node
Hyberbolic node
Loop node
Friction point node
End node
Dead end node

Uncategorized

Intercontextuality

Posted on by WVF

Don’t Be Basic. Be Intercontextual.


In the vast web of meanings deeply woven across space and a never-ending reach of time, flutters an utterance that dances with volitional force. Such a force moves nations to war and mothers to their infants. We can become lost through the push and pull dance of meaning and the actions that fan out as points that glow—ones wanting recognition. Braving one’s gaze upon such a glow is not without caution. Once pricked by an attentive glance a revelation unfolds like a tale. Willing disciples of inquiry will find a tale whose significance is only understood deeply by those who intercontextually dig. Rupturing through the layers of intersecting pieces of discourse linked yet to other layers eventually leads to complexity in modeling, design, theory building, and abstraction. Now go forth and be intercontexted in examinations, explorations, and endeavors. Don’t just walk on the surface boundaries; wonder how the next foothold is supported as you travel along your path.
Uncategorized

Farm or Bunker

Posted on by WVF

The word “silo” is used frequently in higher ed. Is it an acronym of varying sorts? A job title? Could there be a superior intelligent liaison officer of administration managing the enterprise of the academe? Are our “silos” spaces to keep things safe? Is this where we place and store a successful yield-a research bounty-for distribution? Or are they disciplinary fortresses designed to hoard treasures and prevent others from sharing? Or at most sinister and at odds with the mandate of improving the human condition, did we build these with an idea to destroy others from a distance? The word “silo” is frequently used in higher ed. How do you use the word?

Uncategorized

Describing, Not Prescribing

Posted on by tmulligan

Friday, July 29 2019
The Valdosta School
To: My beloved students
Re: Getting unstuck

@TM
#tools
< post001
post003 >

And taxonomies are useful. Circumscribing intellectual spaces, defining terms, and so on.

The value of tasking students with the seemingly mechanical and relatively unintimidating challenge of assembling collections of terms related to a content area has succumbed to disruption through edupunked supportive networks delivering high quality content that meets many curricular objectives. Time to (re)design and glean those punked out immersive best practices.

suspicions

Sleight of Hand

Posted on by tmulligan

Friday, July 29 2019
The Valdosta School
To: recipient
Re: Driving wow

@tmulligan
#hashtag
who?
what?
where?
when?
how?

Aha! moments are fewer and rather between, but there are numerous clever techniques that can foster epiphany. Momentary insight is better than its alternative.

As Jim Jarmusch acknowledged about his black and white film Dead Man, stripping away a layer of familiarity (removing an expected aspect of reality) can expose otherwise overlooked relationships— even reveal an underlying truth.

Perhaps predictably, there are contrived and artificial as well as more graceful, organic means of accomplishing this effect in the classroom.

Muting the audio to emphasize visual storytelling

blah

Turning off picture to emphasize a sound mix
Louise Lawler Screens a Movie with No Images
https://hyperallergic.com/376807/louise-lawler-screens-a-movie-with-no-images/
Draining color to reveal light Ratio