Education and learning
Powerful social network research is as much about having a good statistician as it is an anthropologist and together, they need to have the story that comes from it, woven together by the users.
Social Networks: Beyond the Numbers Read More »
Of the many persistent myths about innovation, the lone genius is about the most sticky. Continued research shows how untrue this is.
The Persistent Myth of the Lone Genius in Art and Science Read More »
Thinking developmentally means attenuating oneself to nuance, punctuated learning, ongoing feedback, and inconsistent behaviour. I don’t blame people for wanting to impose a simple cause-and-effect narrative on the world, but doing so doesn’t mean its useful. As I’ve argued elsewhere, unless we consider changing our thinking we may continue to spend time devising ways to do what systems thinker and management leader Russell Ackoff called “the wrong things, righter”.
Thinking Developmentally About Social Issues Read More »
Understanding not only what we think about, but how we think about it in relation to the issues we face is important if we are derive strategies that take the complexity of human systems into account. Teaching for thinking and not for knowledge in itself requires different thinking and acting. The question is: Are we ready and willing to do this? Most people love change so long as they don’t have to do anything different. Hopefully, our health and research systems are different. And if not, how can we inspire the thinking to make them so?
Thinking Different Requires Different Thinking Read More »
Technology may aid in our strategy development, implementation of certain tactics for teaching, but it will not provide the grist for improving the social component of learning. Just as Facebook friends are (mostly) extensions of the friendships we create in everyday life without technology, so is learning. Technology is an aid, not the purpose and thus, focusing on the aids as the means for reinvention sidesteps whether we’re educating effectively in the first place and risks us doing what Russell Ackoff calls doing the wrongs righter.
Asking if Technology Can Reinvent Education is the Wrong Question Read More »
Applying developmental design may get us past the inevitable square-peg-round-hole problem that many evaluators, program planners and policy makers find themselves in as they seek to get greater value from their programs and demand more return on their investments. Evaluation and research is sought as the means to do it and with programs designed for evolution from the start, perhaps we won’t be surprised when the metaphorical ice sheets start to fall apart (as seen above) and see it as a developmental step to a new reality.
Developmental Design and Human Services Read More »
Knowledge translation models, such as the widely cited one conceived of by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, are both process and outcome oriented; ideal for designers. KT is a designed process and the more it is approached through the lens of design thinking, the greater likelihood we’ll get a system that reflects its intentions better than what we currently have.
Design and Science: An Opportunity for Knowledge Translation and Exchange?? Read More »
Social media, like all human activities, involves designed interactions in a complex environment. How we design for this space is as much about the social as it is the media.
Complexity, Interaction Design and Social Media Read More »
This week Watson, the latest IBM-created supercomputer trounced two of Jeopardy’s greatest champions at their own game. A sign of the dawn of true artificial intelligence or a red herring?
The Myth of (Complex) Decision Making Read More »
Developmental evaluation is gaining interest in the evaluation, service and policy community, but do these newfound fans know what they are getting when they ask for it? Grasping the fundamentals of development as opposed to growth is one of the foundations to its utility.
Grasping Developmental Evaluation Read More »
