#change11 Listening to Nancy #socialartist

November 5, 2011 by coachcarole 6 Comments

It’s Saturday and I have had time to visit the recording of Nancy White’s stimulating, inspiring and artistic session for #change11, generously moderated by Dave Cormier and George Siemens. I was inspired!

Giving myself the entire hour to listen, absorb, observe, notate and think whilst Nancy provided one of her ‘outlier’ sessions. This is what I did!

I got my trusty portable white board and propped it beside my desk and as I listened I began to take notes as a ‘social reporter’ giving due attention to the ‘drawing’ style that Nancy herself recommended for the many real time participants in the Blackboard Collaborate virtual room. The picture you see above is the result of my ‘scribing and drawing’ for that hour (oh well sure I was able to pause and check for understanding,  and it might have taken me an hour and a half).

Inspiration point 1:  read again this engaging book by the author of the Tipping Point and Blink.

You’ll note that at the point early in the piece where someone described Nancy as an ‘exceptional outlier’ I was able to just reach to my bookshelf and take down my own copy of ‘Outliers: the story of success by Malcolm Gladwell’.

If you click on the image and read it from left to right you’ll get my perception of this session on ‘change and what it means to you’ through my lens and aided by some creative thinking on the board. You will notice some of the QUOTES and discussion pieces that leapt off the whiteboard and chat space for me. For example this one from  @suifaijonmak – ‘the more I listen to various networkers the more I want to know and share’, and these from @brainysmurf – ‘MOOCs = tremendous self-controlled learning’, and ‘managing the ‘chaos’ is part of the self-control in a MOOC’.

Then there were some right off the whiteboard itself where they had been scribed by participants. For example: ‘change leads to divergent thinking’ and ‘love the silence to ponder the What just happened? or What was said’. Words of wisdom and expressions of passion for change were demonstrated throughout the session and Nancy ‘facilitated’ with ease enabling a ‘whole group collaboration’ on the topic that was meaningful and engaging. This type of ‘brain stretching’ and ‘chaos causing’ with disruptive learning is what helps me to stay focussed.

I aim to be a better SOCIAL REPORTER in my reflections and a better SOCIAL ARTIST in my networking.

You’ll notice I also picked my copy of ‘Digital Habitats’ right off the shelf when I saw a reference to the book co-authored by Nancy, Etienne Wenger and John D.Smith.

Inspiration point 2: re-read Chapter 12 on Learning Agenda to stretch my notion of community and what it is to be a technology steward.

Inspiration point 3: I also took note of the URL provided in the CHAT and will be taking a closer look at Etienne Wenger’s new work by reading the blogs of David Wilcox on Social Reporting. and watching this video.

So by listening to Nancy I end up listening and learning from David around a ‘new to me’ concept of ‘social reporting’ – and unpacking it for how to do that well for my communities.

… and now for a closeup of that whiteboard for Nancy ….