Domain of One’s Own [visualized]

This is my contribution to the call for posters to represent the incredible Domain of One’s Own intitiative.

cc licensed ( BY NC SA ) flickr photo shared by Giulia Forsythe

I had a lot of visual notes from talks that I wanted to combine into one large visualization as a sort of homage to the beauty of this project. I also wanted to integrate some of the blog posts I’ve read related to the topic because in a way, many of these thoughts have contributed to its genesis.

As we may think, the conversations unfold as we click and explore. The open web allows us to retrace the development of the thoughts as they developed.

This is not a linear tale from one blog post to the next, it is deeply linked, complex, recursive and expansive. You may notice the drawing has a lot of the energy sprouting from Jim Groom’s head because he is a cheerleader the master bonder with his infectious enthusiasm. He champions good ideas, encourages and nourishes them by restating, rethinking, reframing, documenting through comments and his own posts.

Jon Udell urges us to re-imagine education and to think like the web.

Gardner Campbell has faith in the conversation; in the process of narration, curation, sharing; to evoke a digital renaissance, which can allow us to hear the grand harmonies of the spheres. This is a bag of gold! We can be the system administrators of our own digital lives, with web servers in our pockets. We can control our own personal cyberinfrastructure. Faculty can and should bake this right into the curriculum.

From the student (now alumni) perspective Shannon Hauser explains how umwblogs allowed her to intelligently participate in a democracy, cultivate depth. Her professors modeled the use of the system through authentic uses: to teach, to connect with peers, experts; to discover, reflect, write, edit, revise; to develop and craft their curriculum vitae, as a portfolio, as a research dossier. She learned alongside them and Oh, what a story her dashboard could tell!

The sunflower could be simply Media Wiki. Though Harry and Jason’s story of sunflowers might just be a better metaphor than dandelions for OER and the power of the web.

Though not explicit, I feel that there are influences from Scott Leslie’s educator as DJ which was influenced by David Wiley teacher as DJ which is in itself a form of educational rip, mix, feed. Same goes for the Reclaim movement, as a nod to Boone Gorges, D’Arcy Norman, and all those daring folks who took the early DIY steps to fully controlling their online presence.

And of course, you will find Tim Owens (slide guy!), Martha Burtis the wizard driving the syndication bus (who stirs a mighty concoction), Andy Rush (and he blogs!)

All along, through posts and comments, you see great ideas being born from the fertile mind of Brian Lamb. Similarly Alan Levine is a frequent commenter and rabid blogger documenting his work on that syndication bus in all sorts of contexts.

The little network style lines to computers, databases and people are to represent rhizomatic, connectivist learning.

Finally, a lot of these ideas I first heard on #ds106radio as remixed audio by Jason Toal or David Kernohan, literally educator DJs who can turn any talk or conversation into a raving dance party. Awww yeah. BOOM!

In any case, I had a yearning to do this drawing and now I can rest. I was able to narrate, curate and share the story of the discovery path of this great idea in a way that I wanted and in my own space.

UPDATE: As further evidence, Martha details the rich history of this project and you will see a ping back on both her post and here to BavaTuesdays as Jim continues to champion and bondo connections.

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Technical Aside:

cc licensed ( BY NC SA ) flickr photo shared by Giulia Forsythe

After a few experiences using the iPad to draw these notes and then having difficulties with folks wanting to print and the files not being large enough resolution, I tried a new approach. I started the drawing in the iPad at the highest resolution AutoDesk Sketchbook Pro would allow 1800×1200. The caveat is that on my first gen iPad, my native resolution is so low that I can only have one layer. As such I used iTunes to export the file as a layered Photoshop *PSD file to my laptop, where I created new layers and coloured in the notes using my Wacom Intuous tablet. I am not well practiced in using the tablet and this took a great deal longer than usual, though by the end of the night, I started discovering short cut keys and really finding efficiencies. Next time, I’m either using a newer generation iPad or just hope I remember all the things I just learned tonight. For one, don’t draw in the dark, as you might spend 30 minutes trying to figure out why the pen will only delete and not colour. The answer is that you are holding the flipping pen upside down and you are using the “eraser” end. Duh. Lessons learned and now documented for future reference!