FROM DILIP MUKERJEA

"Genius is in-born, may it never be still-born."

"Oysters, irritated by grains of sand, give birth to pearls. Brains, irritated by curiosity, give birth to ideas."

"Brainpower is the bridge to the future; it is what transports you from wishful thinking to willful doing."

"Unless you keep learning & growing, the status quo has no status."

Saturday, November 27, 2010

CHAMPIONING STUDENTS: PROFERRING MYRIAD VISUAL MAPPING TOOLS

[continuation from the Last Post ~ in connection with the recent launch of a series of new programs intended for parents as well as their school-going kids/teens, under the auspices of 'The House of Creative Brains'.]


Because of Dilip's never-ending innovative spirit, he has developed a vast repertoire of visual tools to help working pros as well as students to navigate overwhelmingly abundant data, irrespective of whether they come printed, electronic or otherwise.

Most people only know "mind-mapping" as a solitary tool, but just imagine you have only a screw driver in your tool box, how does the world look to you? Think about it.

Particularly for a student, a smorgasbord of visual tools will provide one with multitudinous array of diverse options to deal with the variability & complexity seemingly inherent within different academic subjects or disciplines.

As a case in point:

A 'story grid' or a 'storyboard' will be ideal for English Literature; a 'noteboard' will be excellent for fleshing out all the terminology of Science subjects; a 'concept map' will be superb for organising information from any Science subject, e.g. Biology, at various superordinate & subordinate levels; a 'timeline' or 'transitive order graph' will be more appropriate for History, so that one can follow the chronological trend of major events with their attendant causes & impacts;

In fact, I would say a creative combination of mindmaps & other visual tools may even be necessary to help a student to navigate the complexity of any subject.

Mastering visual tools is a must in today's Knowledge Economy as we are living in a dominant visual culture.

Don't forget, more than 90% of our learning in a lifetime comes to us via visual cues.

As a counterpoint:

In the corporate world, visual tools have proven to aid decision making; shorten meetings; promote group consensus; generate better impressions & convince audience (in a presentation); & garner effectiveness in problem solving & learning from documents.

This is based on the research work of Robert Horn, visiting scholar at Stanford University & author of the classic, 'Visual Language: Global Communication for the 21st Century'. I recommend reading his book.

In a nut shell, mastering the visual tools from Dilip's portfolio of offerings will help you to embrace the Law of Requisite Variety.

In more explicit terms, if your rate of learning is faster than the turbulence around you, your chances of continual success are assured!

To paraphrase 'Neutron Jack' or better known to the corporate world as Jack Welch:

"I've always believed that when the rate of change inside an institution [read: individual] becomes slower than the rate of change outside, the end is in sight!"

[to be continued in the Next Post.]

[For more information about the series of new programs under 'The House of Creative Brains', please get in touch with Ms. Faye Yeoh via her email faye_yeoh@yahoo.com]

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