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Dr. Jude's Visual Thinking Wordle

I have subscribed to the RSS feeds of five different websites and/or blogs that are related to visual thinking, which is the topic of my action research project at Full Sail Online.  In this blog post I will offer a short description of each site/blog and explain how the site/blog might provide value to my AR project.

The first site is Garr Reynolds' Presentation Zen blog, which I have been following since I first read his books Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery and Presentation Zen Design: Simple Design Principles and Techniques to Enhance Your Presentations.  For the past three semesters I have been gradually revising my in-class presentations so that they reflect the principles of simplicity, restraint and naturalness that Reynolds advocates.  This semester I am teaching the Presentation Zen approach to approximately 400 students who are enrolled in my large lecture sections of organizational behavior, my senior seminar in strategic management and my executive MBA course in strategic thinking.  Garr's website/blog provides examples of presentations that employ the Presentation Zen approach, as well as helpful hints on how to improve my use of visuals to support the core message of each presentation I deliver.  A few days ago I posted a comment on Garr's blog that linked to my review of Reynolds' Presentation Zen Bento Box - so far 1800+ viewers have viewed my review, including Garr, himself.  Talk about the power of the Internet and a personal learning network in action!

The second site that I hope will help me improve my visual thinking skills, is sponsored by Duarte Design in Mountain View, CA.  Nancy Duarte is a master storyteller and the author of two of my favorite books - Slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations and Resonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences.  The Duarte blog is actually written by various designers at Duarte Design, so readers can get a variety of perspectives on how to improve their presentations.  Nancy is also giving a free webinar on visual storytelling on Thursday September 30^th – I know I will gain some interesting insights on how to combine visual imagery with storytelling techniques that will help me make a difference in the lives of my students.

My third RSS subscription links to Seth Godin’s blog, not so much because it is related to visual thinking, but because he is a thought leader on how to help people become remarkable.  I was able to leverage my Full Sail student status into a $19 ticket to see Seth in action at the Harris Theatre in Chicago on September 16^th.  If you are not familiar with his work, I recommend taking a look at his latest book Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?, as well as Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us.  Seth has a very clear vision about what is wrong with our current educational system because it focuses on training people to be cogs in an industrial or factory based economy that no longer exists.  I am searching for ways to help my students become linchpins who make a difference in the world – but it requires becoming a different kind of teacher than I have been in the past.  Since my action research project is also about changing my teaching practice, I know I can find inspiration in reading Seth’s blog on a daily basis.

The fourth RSS subscription on my list links to Dan Roam’s blog that supports his books on visual thinking - The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures and Unfolding the Napkin: The Hands-On Method for Solving Complex Problems with Simple Pictures.  I have been fascinated by Dan’s ability to show business executives and managers how to use visual thinking strategies to solve problems and grow their businesses.  Dan’s books and blog provide great resources to connect my action research on visual thinking with the content areas I teach on strategic thinking and problem solving.

And last, but not least, is my RSS subscription to Simon Sinek’s blog called RE:Focus – Simple Ideas to Help You Thrive.  Not surprisingly, Simon has also written an interesting book called Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action, but my first exposure to the ideas expressed on his blog and in the book came from watching his TED video from September of 2009.  You might be wondering what Simon’s work has to do with visual thinking and that is a fair question, since I indicated at the beginning of this post that all of the RSS subscriptions I selected would add value to my AR project on visual thinking.  Well Simon’s work has inspired me in a number of ways.  First of all, his fundamental question focuses on starting with why – why do I think it is necessary to shift my teaching practice to focus on visual thinking strategies?  I guess you’ll have to visit my AR website to find out the many layers of my answer to that question, but the short answer is that my students are much more visual in their learning preferences than I am – so rather than making them change and adjust to me, I feel an obligation to change how I teach so that I can connect with them more effectively and enhance their learning.  But Simon’s blog also gets at the heart of what my AR project is about – refocusing my career so that I can simplify the core messages I share with students and inspire them to take action that will change the world in a positive way.