Solving World Problems - Mapping Solutions

I watched several of the presentations from last week's Obama Summit via livestream and shared ideas via the Twitter chat at #ObamaSummit.  I'm still going back through the Tweets to read some of the recaps from the event.

So far I've not seen any uses of maps and visualizations to show places where people  need help, or to show the work that needs to be done, and the resources and talent needed, to solve the problems of Chicago or the world.

I've been following systems thinking work by Gene Bellinger for several years and this week I watched Gene present an introduction to systems thinking tools.  If you visit this link you can go through that presentation yourself.

I've been using visualizations and concept maps since the 1990s to share my ideas. You can find these embedded in many articles on this blog.  Thus, I've seen a lot of potential in using some of the tools Gene points to, but I've not wanted to invest the time to learn how to use them and launch my ideas onto a new platform, without the help and involvement of others who might want to use those ideas.

For the past few years I've been connecting with a group of innovative educators via a Connected Learning Community, that uses the #clmooc hashtag to connect on Twitter.  One way this group has stayed energized is that each year, and often during the year, they encourage each other to "make" things, using resources they know about, or resources they learn about from each other.

Thus, this November, they are encouraging people to make maps. You can read the introduction here.

As I watched Gene's presentation I thought to myself, "What if I could start a project on Kumu.io, then invite interested folks from #clmooc to come in and help me?"

So, this morning I took the plunge.  Below you can see a screen shot of a project that I've launched. I hope that some of the #clmooc folk, and perhaps some who are inspired by the Obama Summit, will take a look at this information and begin to use these tools to map their own ideas and network.

mapping the network

Last week I shared an article about how where you're born affects what your life outcomes will be with Terry Elliott and other #clmooc members. I'd written it in 2012 (click here).  Terry turned this into a poem, which he posted on his site.   As I was writing my response on his blog, I thought I'd format it as a poem. Then, I thought, why not share this on a Lumen5 video, which I'd learned about through Terry a few months ago. So I created the video below:



If you follow #clmooc on Twitter, or Facebook, or through their G+ community or web site  you'll see many examples of how one person launches an idea and others re-mix it in many creative ways, often in collaboration with others.

Systems thinking is not a new idea in parts of the education community. The Walters Foundation and the Creative Learning Exchange both focus on education applications. I suspect many in the social sector are also  using systems thinking and concept mapping, but I've not seen many examples on web sites of youth development, tutoring and/or mentoring program web sites. 

I hope that my contribution today will lead to new ideas shared in the coming month and years that use systems thinking, Kumu, InsightMaker and the ideas Gene Bellinger has been sharing. Maybe some of these maps will point to others who are already using these tools effectively.

4-26-2023 update - my friends from #CLMOOC shared a short video today, showing how to create concept maps using Artificial Intelligence, using a platform called Whimsical.  I'd like to encourage people to test this tool, creating new versions of my own concept maps.