How Do I Love Thee: Abstracting

Abstracting as a cognitive tool.  Having the ability to identify and to single out a major attribute from a concept, image, domain, or anything is called abstracting. Once the main feature has been identified, the feature is further represented to emphasize its significance. This cognitive tool also uses analogy to highlight the major elements.      

How this understanding impacts my topic.  Abstracting, is a thinking tool that brings about the simplest but the most compelling reason that I came up with my course topic:  Recognizing the relevance of social networking to adult learning. The very essence that I can extract from social networking is CONNECTION.  An adult learner who has learned this thinking tool has the ability to grasp the concept of thinking abstractly about considering everyone as major pieces of a connection.  Through abstracting, he also can picture himself in the connection and someone who has a vital role to contribute to the relevance of the network.

How and why you choose this abstraction and representations.  A connection can be represented by people who are interconnected through social media.  A connection can also be represented by the relevant interests, talents, and skills each member of network can offer that could bring about more connections. To illustrate abstracting, I decided to use nature to represent the two elements of connection.  DANDELIONS with WATER DROPLETS can be an abstract representation of the core of my course topic.  The dandelion is a visualization of the whole social network of people which are represented by the flower seeds.  The water droplets portray the interests, talents, and skills that join people.  As the interests, talents, and skills get bigger, so does the droplets of water. 

I find this tool a thought-provoking and interesting way of representing ingenuity! Well, another way unleashing our creativity …

How Do I Love Thee: Patterning

A. Recognizing Patterns




B. Creating New Patterns

A Quick Response (QR) code, a registered trademark of Denso Wave (a subsidiary of Toyota), is a two-dimensional barcode that is becoming popular and widely recognized by the public who want immediate access to more information. Scanning this code with camera-enabled smartphones and other portable devices can direct us to  websites, phone numbers, multimedia content, SMS messages, maps and directions, email addresses, social communities, coupons, music downloads, or images. 

So how can I use a QR code to represent my content topic as I relate it to patterning? This pattern is a perfect representation as I relate this cognitive tool in teaching how to recognize the relevance of social networking to adult learning.  With all the known uses of a QR code, it is very important to use this pattern in directing people to information that is significant for personal and professional growth.  An example is a career searcher who generates a QR code that will direct potential employers to his online resume posted in LinkedIn.  Because of its increasing familiarity and acceptance, it can be used in showcasing skills, expertise, or artistic creations by using a generated QR code to land to one’s e-portfolio or website.  A QR code has a great potential in producing many ways of building connections with other people or communities through social networking. Although, it is still a crucial consideration for me as an instructor to teach adult students that the major role for a QR code in education is for personal branding in a professional setting.

From recognizing patterns to creating new patterns as a cognitive tool.  QR codes usually consist of black tiles arranged in a square pattern on a white background.  These symbols can easily be created by using free QR code generators.  We can maximize the effectiveness of this cognitive tool by learning the skill of recognizing this familiar pattern then turning it into a new and unique pattern.  Why? For competitive edge in the social and mobile world!  QR codes are becoming so common that we need to create these patterns with eye-catching colors and not just plain black and white.  Also, add more artistic flare on the pattern to get more attention from the public but still maintain its readability feature for camera-enabled mobile devices. 

Once I master this thinking tool, I will be able to recognize more patterns which can be turned into distinctive patterns - another approach in unleashing creativity!

How Do I Love Thee: Perceiving

Yup, this is a very familiar sound! Do you remember the phone modem “dialup” connection? This sound helps me relate to my content topic (Recognizing the relevance of social networking to adult learning) as I experience two emotions when I hear this sound:

First, the feeling of relief. I remember the old lingo: After my modem redialed a few times, I could finally start surfing through the information superhighway! Being connected with the right network of people through social media can be valuable as we search for a job opening, promote our skills or services, and exchange our opinions and ideas. We get the sense of being connected by being a part of the society. Through social media, the need to belong and to be accepted turns to satisfaction and a source of support and motivation.

Second, the feeling of frustration. Dial-up connections are so s-l-o-w! I remember what it was like opening a picture attached to an email. I would see the top of the head, then slowly see the eyes, eventually the nose … uh-oh, it froze, I got disconnected! Today, we have options with how fast our internet connection is going to be. Through social media, we can control how much of ourselves we want to divulge to the society. As we set boundaries in relating to people, we get to decide who we are connected with and what information about ourselves can be seen by which people. We have the ability to speed up our networks personally and professionally or to just leave it at a slow pace. Just remember, putting on the brakes too long might disconnect you from the needed contacts.

Perceiving involves observation through the use of our different senses. Aside from the sound, the above representation also showed an image. But as we look closely, the image is made up of tiles with small pictures. This photo mosaic is a visualization of people who can build me up personally as well as professionally. Learning the significance and discerning what information is relevant in social networking can help construct our profile in the society. Putting these tiles together is like relating all the people in our network. Eventually, we have seamlessly created a great representation of ourselves.

Perceiving as a thinking tool, once mastered, will help me represent ideas and concepts different ways. People whom I connect with, like my students, may observe presented topics using a specific sense at a higher extent. Visual learners could appreciate me teaching the relevance of social networking by representing the lesson with a photo mosaic. More ideas and feelings could be brought out from a student who learns better by listening to the “modem dial-up connection” than by relating his thoughts to social networking.

Perhaps, I should also try various methods to reach out to other groups of learners who are more perceptive to taste. There has to be a way I can present my content topic on social networking by using bacon and ice cream! Well, just keep unleashing our creativity …