Penworks.Net

It’s been a challenging few weeks recently, as I’ve reached the business end of the MPhil progression time. I need to firm up the methodology and actually know what I’m going to do with data, not just what might need to be achieved, with a rough estimation of how to go about it. I need to know. The battle has come...

Possibly the most interesting and potentially the ‘newest knowledge’ aspect of the PhD project is how data and learning are ‘intertwingled‘. I’ve been led into this area by instinct, having realised that in dealing with smart (city) learning, we need to think as much about data as we do about knowledge and community. The idea has been lurking around for some time but ignited when...

In scoping technical aspects of the project, I knew it would be a good idea to ‘look’ at data. It would trigger good thought processes as well as get me started on the track of understanding how to make solid visualisations of networks and communities, to show relationships and illustrate points made in relevant discussion.   I already know about...

After receiving my copy of Laurillard’s Conversation Framework I picked up quickly on her praise of phenomenography as an approach to research that might translate into practice. Now phenomenography might well be the methodological underpinning for my whole project, it sounds applicable, but as a novice educational theorist many things you come across at this early stage sound appealing and relevant, so...

Two systems that basically do the same thing, track where we are and who might be around. One is the radar dome, the other is an Inukshuk, at Dingli Cliffs. I just thought that was so cool. When we design digital application interfaces and experiences, we always think about Inukshuk in terms of humanising the digital journey experience, though maybe mostly it...

I’ve come across Paul Pangaro. It’s been a while since I’ve felt a genuine excitement and complete engagement with a person for what they are talking about, where they are coming from. Not since seeing Thomas Friedmans MIT video talk on his flatworld ideas in 2005, or Bruce Sterling’s incredible Spimes talks have I felt so absorbed by ideas and a persons way of thinking about things. These ideas...