Medina, John. Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving
and Thriving at Work, Home, and School. Seattle,WA: Pear Press, 2014.

Some notes on my technology of choice, Stormboard:

Stormboard markets itself as an online
brainstorming and collaboration platform, with the name coming from a
combination of brainstorm and whiteboard. Users can “brainstorm, organize,
prioritize, and act on the best ideas, in the same room or around the world, on
a realtime sticky note whiteboard” (https://stormboard.com/). The top five
benefits Stormboard offers its users are: the ease with which they can capture
ideas, connect remote teams, collaborate in real time, rapidly vote on
favorites, and instant summary reports.  Given
its focus on collaboration among remote teams as a means to generate and vote
on ideas, as well as generate reports based on the contents of each whiteboard,
it appears that this program was originally intended for use in the
workplace/industry; however, given that much of my first-year composition
curriculum features the same foci, some facets of the program will lend
themselves well to classroom use.

Creating a storm is relatively easy, and there
are a few categories of templates to choose from; however, the majority of the
themes are designed for use by businesses and thus focus on mission statements,
negotiation, impact versus effort, effective team models, etc. These would
likely be quite beneficial for technical and professional writing courses (334W),
as these types of decision-making and collaborative tools would provide a safe(r)
environment for students to become acclimated to some of the generic
conventions present in a corporate environment.

There is an Education category of templates that
includes a character map, compare and contrast, conflict, reading and analyzing
non-fiction, seed discussion, and word wall. I could imagine using the Seed Discussion
template at the beginning and end of classes, or perhaps as a transition into
new topics during a class meeting. The Calendar templates would be incredibly
valuable for students to manage and schedule time to work on collaborative
projects, dividing responsibilities and scheduling group or paired meetings
leading up to a presentation. Given the ease with which these storms can be
shared, I could also require them to submit their group calendar(s) as part of
the final project. I intend to use the Action Brainstorming template
(categorized as a General Template) for a similar purpose in helping groups
decide on collective and individual tasks, as well as manage their time.

Inspired by the content and nature of our
readings, I chose the Six Thinking Hats matrix as a template for my notes, which
is inspired by Edward de Bono’s The Six
Thinking Hats. The template is organized into six discrete boxes with a
corresponding color: Information (White), Emotions (Red), Discernment (Black),
Optimistic Response (Yellow), Creativity (Green), and Overview (Blue). For a
bit more context on The Six Thinking Hats,
go here: http://www.debonogroup.com/six_thinking_hats.php

The general idea is to “separate thinking into six
clear functions and roles;” because each role is signified by a separate color
and symbolic hat (symbolic reasoning, anyone?), users are able to “easily focus
or redirect thoughts, the conversation, or the meeting” (www.debonogroup.com).
Upon naming the storm, you are able to give it a goal or description, then
invite others to view and participate in the storm. You can enable the chat
function, which is similar to Google Docs, and there is a voting feature that
allows participants to vote (up to ten times in the default setting, but
additional votes may be added in Storm Setup) on including certain content. I
can imagine that the voting feature could help facilitate collaboration if
group members were able to use it effectively.

Content is added as a Sticky (formatted like a
Sticky Note) with limited formatting capability (you can only change the color
of the note). You can add images and video, as well as sketch, though I’m not
sure what I would sketch at this point. It’s possible to edit Stickys by
double-clicking or right-clicking on the top right hand corner of the note; however,
I found that if I edited a note, then canceled my edits, the content of the
Sticky would disappear and there would be what I’ll call a Ghost Sticky in the
exact position of the original note. The Ghost Sticky is blank and as you
navigate among the different panels of the template, it will remain on the
screen; it’s as if the Ghost Sticky is stuck to your screen instead of the
template. When I shared the Storm (via email, to myself), the Ghost Stickys
were actually populated with text in their original format and I was able to
edit and delete them. Instant relief will ensue because I *am* afraid of those
ghosts.

I will share the Storm with each of you here and
via email so that you’ll be able to add Stickys and edit content as you see
fit. My Storm is your Storm: https://stormboard.com/invite/102700/cookie48

Kim’s notes on Coggle:

Kim’s experiences with Coggle remind me of two of Jenkins
et. al’s concerns with participatory culture that require pedagogical
intervention: access (The Participation Gap) and transparency (Transparency
problem). With regard to access in my particular context, Coggle’s connection
with Google is a benefit, as my institution uses Gmail for instructors and
students. Students also feel comfortable with Gmail, Drive, and Docs.

I find it valuable for individual students to take notes, as
each student would need to make decisions about organizing and categorizing
information, as well as how the pieces informed the whole. I appreciate the
color-coding function and benefitted from Kim’s use of it to denote the
relative simplicity or sophistication of the knowledge processes. I agree with
Amy’s comment that Kim’s Coggle and her organization of information will serve
as a detailed overview of the chapter’s key terms. Perhaps Coggle is best
utilized, as Kim suggests, for hierarchical organization of information; I see
the merits in having students utilize it to plan and prewrite essays, and I
think that making them aware of its limitations (likely by encouraging or
requiring them to utilize a series of technologies for similar tasks) would
help provide one of many necessary steps toward its transparency. Coggle’s
limited capacity for interactivity among multiple collaborative users was
disappointing, and made me wonder if some of these technologies/programs are
being utilized as digital versions of the graphic organizer templates that
students have been provided for quite some time.

I recall that they were an integral part of my middle and
high school curriculum, though I believe they were considered too remedial or
elementary for use in my lower division composition courses as an
undergraduate. In these organizers, content is provided by a single user, who
must negotiate the limitations of the physical/textual space, as well as the
provided categories; there is very little room for invention or arrangement.
While Coggle is designed for use by a single user and there don’t seem to be
assigned categories, it feels reminiscent of a graphic organizer in a different
medium.

Shantal’s notes in Mindmeister:

There is a striking resemblance between Shantal’s and Kim’s
notes for this reading, but it was fascinating to see the distinctions between
their ranking/prioritizing of information and how they chose to organize it. As
with Coggle, I think MindMeister’s insistence upon brevity and conciseness
could be useful for circumstances requiring rote learning and reporting.