I am thinking about objects that help us think...
link: Field and Seas homemade storybeads
I have been thinking about this for a while.....what kind of objects support our thinking (of course the kinds of thinking we're talking about...still aren't clear to me exactly..). The idea has its roots in Montessori, papert, piaget, consructivism....and of course kinesthetic learning :). However few of these specificially designed objects whether analogue or digital, are mobile....thinking blocks, thinking cards etc...(except perhaps the mobile phone, if that really is also such a thinking object). The closest we get are objects such as prayer and storybeads for focus, meditation, memory aid. I remember I had a necklace that became quite a transitional object for me for a while, and a tiny little book with a metal cover that for a while acted as a transitional object when I was in hospital a lot - these were more confidence building I think though, than thought-enabling....I can see the link but am not entirely sure of the difference between a transitional object as comfort blanket and transitional object as link between concrete and abstract (as first described by papert)....but anyway my bro used to hold a bean-filled frog when he was a kid and was "thinking". In fact there's an interesting storybead project from MIT that's really got me thinking more about this. I like the mobile and modular aspects of it. I think what I'm trying to make is some kind of prayerbead, mandala, storybead, modular like object that learners can own and configure themselves to support their own thinking...that helps draw attention to their patterns of thinking, not only in their brain but also in their body and in space and place, and that helps them understand the positive and negative habits, and alternatives but not by telling but just by asking learners to explore their learning through this object. It creates a focus, a motivation. Something that's very aesthetically pleasing to hold, and focus on (just like mobile phones which are slightly fetishised...). I think iphone has real cashed in on the module aspect. And I think firefox does it really well too. And it strikes me, although I'm not so sure of this yet, that a lot of transitional objects seem to have a very clear, predetermined purpose, and tend to be designed and owned by teachers rather than learners.