Cmap software is a result of research conducted at the Florida Institute for Human & Machine Cognition (IHMC). It empowers users to construct, navigate, share and criticize knowledge models represented as concept maps. -- http://cmap.ihmc.us/Here's one I made for the Peeragogy project. Maybe useful? It's perhaps a bit quicker than Inkscape for some things, but I realise that it could also just be a "cool tool" and a distraction from getting on with work.
My testimonial is that I did find this schematic quite useful for thinking through the first edition of the Peeragogy Handbook. It looks like I had maps for each of the chapters, too. Ah, here's a clickable version of the image below: http://cmapspublic3.ihmc.us/rid=1K81VLSK7-1RL0RQ4-WZK/Peeragogy%20Cmap.cmap -- and yes, the little icons at the bottom of some of the notes are indeed clickable in that version and lead to other maps, though those ones are less developed.
Online collaboration on Cmaps with the tool mentioned above was possible but a little awkward. But it could be worth giving it another try!
A broader thought about schematics: I think it's interesting that we both were thinking about the Dan Harmon story wheel: Yes I'd be happy to use it, and I also think it would be interesting to see if we can map it to the Jakobson model.
It occurred to me that the Harmon circle might actually represent a sort of "compass" for linking between maps and territories!
Here's someone else's idea of a story circle, kind of similar to Harmon's, but with cool icons:
Here's a description of how the icons are used: http://8ways.wikispaces.com/8+Ways...+Creative+and+Productive+Pedagogy+Activities -- they call it "yarning" which quite suits our stated purpose! There is a thesis online about it, "Aboriginal Pedagogies at the Cultural Interface". Here's how the thesis describes the pictures above in words:
1. We connect through the stories we share.
2. We picture our processes of knowledge.
3. We see, think, act, make and share without words.
4. We keep and share knowledge with art and objects.
5. We work with lessons and metaphors from land and nature.
6. We put different ideas together and create new knowledge.
7. We work from wholes to parts, watching and then doing.
8. We bring new knowledge home to help our mob.
For reference, here (from here) is a version of the Harmon story circle "illustrated":
I see some overlap with the above but plenty of differences too. There's another image in the thesis that relates (in fact this is quite similar to the "Non-Linear" icon above).
Ah, I actually inquired a hacker at work (a old fella who studied IT at Tallinn in the early 1990s and now cracks PDF files with Autocad, for example, as a hobby). He recommended MS Visio but it would take some time and effort for me to get it running in Wine (I can't install debs on my Ubuntu system because I forgot the root pw and haven't formatted the system because I would need to backup a lot of data, i.e. thousands upon thousands of PDF's that copy very slowly). So I back-slided to Inskcape, which gives the schemes some too much fixity but simultaneously more control and the option to mess with schemes in very unique ways (such as creating extra layers for drawing more detailed connections, drawing and freely inserting images and shapes, etc.). I'd like to try out CmapTools but it looks like I would need to solve my system's problem with installations first.
ReplyDeleteThe "8 Aboriginal Ways of Learning" interpretation of the story-wheel looks very promising, particularly since the 8 iconic points therein relate very effortlessly with topics in phatic communication. I'd definitely "sticky" it for proceeding with writing the first iteration of our survey.