My past experiments with creating data-driven online collabs have shown that sharing digital identities in the real world makes students feel that they belong to the community and embrace diverse perspectives when researching their subject matter. By sharing their creative process online, students are likely to stay connected with their creative community and enfuse academia into life experiences.  

This year, I adopted visual thinking frameworks from professionals into online graphic organizers to scaffold a complexity of perception in art which stands for a relation between common visual stimuli (knowledge) and a personal understanding of them. As Technology (Data, Ai, Neural Nets) has become a vehicle/tool for contemporary artists connecting multiple perspectives on their original ideas, my students follow online graphic organizers to reflect on each other’s ideas. This helps students observe how views of both an artist and an observer contribute and deepen their artistic concepts. 

I recently discovered the platform Miro which gives participants visual frameworks to capture thinking processes through online collaboration. Such collaborative graphic organizers gamified my coursework research stage and deepened interpersonal connections in the group. Working together on the online board for their inquiries they explore/copy/adopt each other’s thinking processes and contribute to one another’s research. The connection between online and offline interaction makes even the most under-radar folks contribute to the collective art process with their authentic digital identity cues. 

Neurodiverse students  accelerate their academic performance from such online collaborations as they can choose their own way to perform skills, stay connected to the instructions, and contribute to teamwork. Working on the organizer,  students may choose to prioritize text over drawings or share references as video/ imagery or links to the articles. They assign roles and pick their own ways to complete tasks. Such a differentiated approach vests my students with an agency and makes them take ownership of their learning experience. As everyone uses the platform in their own way, collaboration becomes more diverse and accelerates a supportive and professional community. 

Here are a few graphic organizers for online collaboration. I have been using these since the beginning of this year: 

Diversifying Inquiry with Bull’s Eye Chart Collaboration

Students observe how others react/reflect on their inquiry question/concept, and receive diverse feedback and references connected to their ideas. 

Goals:   

• narrow inquiry question 
• diversify concepts/ hypothesis around inquiry question 
• collect visual references  
• clarify visual metaphors

Prerequisites:   Class of at least 15 

                       Inquiry Question (Draft)  

• Chart Preset.  I design a framework visual organizer in Miro called the Bull Eye chart.  The Bull’s eye framework allows a researcher to collect and retain visual data associated with their theme/inquiry and get a diverse view on it from multiple perspectives. 

• State The Inquiry Question. Students initiate visual research by placing their inquiry and critical hypothesis in the center of the Bull Eye diagram. 

• Crowd share. Students rotate through one another’s charts to share responses/visual references/reflections on the theme of inquiry. They follow steps on the notes.   

• Calibrate Your Vision. After a few shifts, students return to their initial inquiry and re-design it based on the collective data. 

• Capture The Experience Offline. Students journal their inquiry, guiding questions and reflections in their sketchbooks. The journal entry is part of their portfolio.

Collecting Sources. Collaborative Mind Map 

Students deepen their inquiry once they have collected and analyzed the sources, ideas, and hypotheses about their inquiry from group mates. 

Goals:  

• get unstuck when starting a complex new project 
• collect sources and visual references 
• find diverse ideas for perspective artworks 

Prerequisites:   A group of three students

Subject Matter /Inquiry Question   

• Mind Map Preset. Mind maps represent the workflow of the inquiry with  big questions and guiding questions/hypotheses.

• Inquiry Set Up. Students place their inquiry question in the center of the mind map preset. Students add guiding questions/ hypotheses/ visual references to their mind map. Students work on the same board so they can see/copy each other’s process. 

• Collaborate. Students rotate to add a fresh layer of sources/reflections to the general concept. They built the hypothesis/ add process on the established original idea but use their own perspectives and knowledge about the subject matter. Students ask a few questions that might deepen the ideas behind the original question. 

• Calibrate your vision with journal entry. Students revisit their inquiries and read through all the insights from their folks. The senses make students collaborate on their vision and clarify key messages of their artworks. Students use digital data to create hands-on preliminary sketches and drafts of the inquiry. 

Deepening Content Knowledge with online art crowd  

Students use assignment roles to explore complex content and use visual thinking to present their material as a group. 

 – Collect and analyze complex data 

–  Acquire under layered concepts in art  with visual thinking

–  Present complex ideas 

Prerequisites:   4 groups of 5 students 

                             A list of resources and materials related to the content 

• Prefiled Mind Map Preset. Students place the subject of exploration in the center of the mind map. They follow prefield threads to explore the subject matter.  

• Assign Roles. Students assign roles in their collaborative group, so everyone has the opportunity to equally contribute to the research and explore at least part of the content.  

• Presentation. Students take 2 min to showcase their mind map and present the research. They follow the structure and showcase their mind map when presenting.

So far so good! I’ll keep experimenting with the digital tool and keep you posted, folks!)  

much love,

D xx