Reading: From A to <A> Keywords of Markup

On the way to Colombia I started to read this book in order to review it - more on that to follow. I've only read four chapters so far and it is a fascinating read. A collection of essays each deals with a particular HTML tag and each so far provides new insights for me and resources.

When I came across the invitation for reviewers I read through the index. HTML 5 was not there so I thought the book might suffer from the rate of change in the interval from original conception to publication. Well HTML 5 is not in the index (just HTML), but it is in the text. Drupal and Ruby on Rails also get a mention.

Of particular interest is chapter 4 'alt' by Colleen A. Reilly which combines accessibility and definitions of disability.

I'll start writing the review soon for the Journal of Community Informatics trying to be more concise than previous efforts (I volunteered to learn too). As for W2tQ I've already found several interesting quotes too, such as the example below. This struck me because it's possible to describe h2cm as a keyword collage ...

<A> evokes collagist writings, "interesting networks that open up a conceptual map" McLuhan (258).
Indeed, collage often is the focus of this type of educational/digital education or writing that asks students to merge texts and ideas. <A>, as a social space, though, is not a collage. As a network, <A> builds relationships while also becoming relationships. To enact a pedagogy of <A>, I have to imagine a social software logic as opposed to connection or merging among things. That logic is not bound to a specific platform, such as the Web, but instead informs institutional practices through the generation of large-scale spaces.p.61.

2011... looking ahead: Line of sight - Lines of insight

LINE OF SIGHT:

LINES OF INSIGHT:

Fractal Drum

Image sources:

Wilkinson, F.J., Monkhouse, H. R. (1967). Maps and Diagrams; Their Compilation and Construction [Paperback], Methuen & Co Ltd. Intervisibility, Line of sight. p. 125 [scanned].
(Book purchased in Mevagissey, Cornwall, Hurley Books July 2010)

Fractal drum. Lines of INsight: http://classes.yale.edu/fractals/panorama/ManuFractals/FractalDrums/FractalDrums.html

Health and social care - listen!

Buller and Butterworth: Skilled nursing practice - four domains?

The health care domains model identifies four domains within health and social care and medicine. What evidence is there to support the model's inclusion of:

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

- plus the spiritual within and without? Steve Buller and Tony Butterworth undertook a ethnographic study in 2001 'Skilled nursing practice - a qualitative study of the elements of nursing'. With skilled nursing practice at the center (Fig. 5.) they identified:

relating and communicating	doing the job
being professional	managing and facilitating

There is some overlap, reflection arises in relating and communicating and doing the job. Overall however there is a definite correspondence between these domains and those within h2cm - the health care domains conceptual framework. I have equated being professional with the SOCIOLOGY domain as for the authors this includes being with patients, conveying confidence, handling situations, being informed. Managing and facilitating is undoubtedly POLITICAL with supervising, auditing, making sure things get done. Doing the job - is based upon planning, informing, assessing, intervening, and being confident (with equipment, procedures, manual dexterity..?).

Having been thinking and writing about h2cm for many years it is a shame that other models have benefitted from funding and gain "ward and community (research) cred" while here evidence is retrofitted. Looking at the paper just in the decade since submission and publication I wonder which elements remain local, and where other elements of the skills base (care concepts) have migrated to ethnographically?

Steve Buller, Tony Butterworth (2001) Skilled nursing practice — a qualitative study of the elements of nursing. Int. J. of Nursing Studies. 38, 4, 405-417.

Balanced Care: Safe Landings and Recovery

In health and social care patient, family and the health care team are united in what is constantly described as a journey. Sometimes there are several, care pathways into territories unknown.

Unknown?

Well yes, if care delivery is personalised (who are we to assume ...?); and yes again even if the patient - the individual concerned is an 'expert' in their condition.

Apart from the metaphysics of life's journey our physical environment can present dangers and yet fewer and fewer corners are truly  unknown. We leave it to astronauts (and oceanographers) to adventure on our behalf. Prior to the Apollo missions it was essential to confirm the nature, solidity of the lunar surface. Would a spacecraft sink and possibly tilt to the extent that return to lunar orbit and Home was impossible?

The Apollo Lunar Module's four legs provided support for a safe landing and take off. A base in every sense.

In health and social care the health career model can provide a base and re-assurance too. Each of the four care domains allied with knowledge and skills - holistic competence - can bring about a successful mission: however the crew and 'success' are defined.

Image source and original text below from:
http://www.robertaonthearts.com/id763.html
Cartier Replica of a Lunar Module
Three individual 18-karat-gold models of the American lunar module were made in 1969 by the jeweler Cartier of Paris on behalf of the French newspaper Le Figaro and presented to the three Apollo 11 astronauts during their post-flight tour in Paris. This model was presented to astronaut Michael Collins.
Image ©Nick Welsh/Cartier Collection 2006

'Well-being' and the dilution of 'caring'

This blog post was originally drafted on 15 October 2008. Back then I'd noticed how in the media - newspaper, internet, radio and journals - there was increasing references to 'well-being'. It was everywhere. Even now it graces lips, airwaves, video, digital and conference platforms.

I was prompted to write because I actually felt that perhaps the public were being somehow sold a pup. I mean 'well-being' - it sounds wholesome, reassuring and cuddly so go on - take hold, give it a hug and look after it. Maybe it literally is a case of - get up and take it for a walk. You know you need to!

What well-being does do is it forces acknowledgment of physical AND mental well-being. In the summer I bought a copy of the British Journal of Wellbeing [BJW]. BJW features physical and mental health with some really interesting features, reviews and interviews. So, I raised my hands, sighed, stretched (felt much better) and accepted "OK well-being (or wellbeing*) it looks like you will go far."

I just have a worry though. Because the concept of well-being is fuzzy, there is a risk that the care agenda could be diluted at a time when specific health and social care populations and issues arising need to be kept in clear and unequivocal focus. Looking at the content I am reassured - there is depth here too. I say this recognising that the concept of well-being can also serve the health career model very well.

More to follow on BJW and well-being ...

http://www.dictionary.net/well-being

*I like hyphens as in socio-technical

Concept albums and voice signatures

In .net magazine (Sept 2010, p.42) Jeffrey Zeldman makes reference to the web we grew up with being as obsolete as concept albums. It's true that music distribution has suffered a series of step-downs from the format that previously conveyed the concept album visually. Many LP covers are classics in themselves. The switch from LP record covers, to CD, and then to mp3 ... downloads means concept albums are indeed fewer; but maybe the reduced visual impact means that new concept albums are less noticed too?

Could the concept album experience a renaissance: online? Story telling has never been completely lost. The web and world's media depends on content: the appetite for stories and music is voracious - Hollywood is famished. Successful narratives prove their worth by doing surprising things with concepts that prompt re-telling down the ages. The concepts may change, but the structures and elements of the stories are timeless.

Concepts obviously remain central to making sense of everything: self, others, the world and the future that includes the new web. In the health career model we have a concept album. It is a care concept album comprising several snapshots or frames. It is also person-centred.

It has a voice that has its own musical signature, it is unique - that is if the album is truly person-centred and listened to.

.net September also includes a brief interview with the creators of The Specials website, which takes the form of a docu-soap about five friends with learning disabilities.

When we listen stories can be told:

great things can follow.

Drawing - the stage of conceptual design

The health career model
- drawing -
for health and social care professionals, et al.. ...

"The Italian word for drawing, disegno,
also encapsulates the stage of conceptual design.
The ability to imagine a design
and then develop it on paper was an increasingly valuable skill."

The Purpose of Drawing: The British Museum, May 2010.

Additional link:
Disegno: Italian Fine Art Drawing

My source: 16 May 2010, Visit to The British Museum, Italian Renaissance drawings.

Have workspace, workbench - let chaos ensue

Whether trying to write computer programs, engage in woodwork, artwork or needlecraft the workspace that you need is critical to what follows.

Having a dedicated workspace is the sign of a professional.

If these activities are purely a hobby you may need to create the space on the fly. Getting the easel and paints out, protecting the carpet and then after all those creative juices are spent you have to organise the clean-up.

The Health Career Model can provide a workspace: a dedicated one. So if like many researchers your focus is (global) health, nursing, social care and social policy ... Hodges' model can provide an assurity space. Whatever your approach here is a great way to explore the scope and boundaries of your plans, objectives and final outcomes.

I noticed a letter by Fawcett et al. (2008):

We congratulate Chaffee and McNeill on the publication of their article, “A Model of Nursing as a Complex Adaptive System” (Nursing Outlook 2007; 55:232-241). The development of a new conceptual model of nursing always is a cause for celebration of the advancement of our knowledge. We are, however, concerned that Chaffee and McNeill did not place their conceptual model within the context of or show an evolution from relevant existing nursing conceptual models. We refer readers to Holden’s¹ concept analysis of complex adaptive systems. She explained the relevance to nursing of the concept, complex adaptive systems, by tracing the “rich tradition” of systems thinking in nursing and pointed out that nurse theorists, including Dorothy Johnson, Imogene King, Martha Rogers, and Callista Roy, have developed conceptual models of nursing that reflect systems thinking. Holden concluded, “This rich tradition in nursing that has emphasized connections and interactions within a systems paradigm continues today. Complexity science merely represents the next stage in understanding how systems operate.”¹

Jacqueline Fawcett, RN, PhD, FAAN
Professor, College of Nursing and Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts, Boston.
Jacqueline Fawcett, Elizabeth Ann Manhart Barrett, Barbara W. Wright, Letter to Editor, Nursing Outlook, Volume 56, Issue 2, March-April 2008, 49.

REFERENCE
1. Holden LM. Complex adaptive systems: Concept analysis. J Adv Nurs 2005;52: 651-7. Nurs Outlook 2008;56:49. doi:10.1016/j.outlook.2008.01.003

Whilst explanations of systems have an essential place in understanding nursing, for me the concept of primary interest within (and without) systems is information. This is not just symptomatic of the paradigm of our times, but a fundamental facet of not only engaging leading edge (quantum) sciences, but relating nursing, complexity, systems, art and science to patients, carers, citizenry and global (eco-) health.

If this appears a recipe,
which when executed on the workbench will result in indigestion,
- have faith -
the problems of our times demands a framework with a massive conceptual maw.

So, in turn I would request that future nurse and complex systems researchers look further afield and factor in the need for and use of a high-level global (ethnoculturally agnostic), universal (multidisciplinary, objective, subjective) workspace:

One with sufficient bandwidth.

Having a dedicated workspace that can be shared across disciplines
- that is multidisciplinary -
denotes a mature profession
and a 21st century professional.

Image source: With thanks to Chunx.com 'Chaos Field'

Additional links:

Nursing Theory Link Page

W2tQ: chaos

W2tQ: complexity

'assurity space'

Information: See bibliography.

Jones, P. (1996) Humans, Information, and Science, Journal of Advanced Nursing, 24(3), 591-598.
Jones, P. (1996) An overarching theory of health communication? Health Informatics Journal, 2,1,28-34.

Notes (III) for a 2010 introduction to the Health Career Model

Definition through purpose

The original purposes for the model's creation are as relevant today as they were in 1983-84:

1. To produce a curriculum development tool;
2. Help ensure holistic assessment and evaluation;
3. To support reflective practice;
4. To reduce the theory-practice gap.

Items 1-4 plus safety are all dependent in one way or another upon knowledge. Admittedly, this is a case of stating the obvious and something of a non-statement in that everything comes down to being knowledge (or nonsense). Resort to some global notion of 'knowledge' amounts to non-differentiation and this tells us nothing. On the contrary: this is how the simplicity of Hodges' model can cultivate and give rise to global complexity. This can help explain the model's potential and utility as a cognitive tool, an aide memoire, a mental prompt and structured conceptual checklist to frame:

• thought
• knowledge (ontology)
  
• perspectives
• dialogue
• problems
• strengths - weaknesses
• plans and actions
• outcomes
• and much more ...

Whether student or specialist practitioner various conceptual elements and (care) threads can be acquired, constructed, integrated and mapped from the dual (in-situ) worlds of theory and practice to the cognitive (personal - reflective) and virtual [cogeographic?]. This means the model can be used as a mental prompt helping to inform theory as in a lecture and subsequent essay; or practically during an interview or care assessment. Beyond this cognitive application, the model's produced can then also be captured and represented on paper, or as an electronic record - by various user communities. ... (Notes IV to follow)

[These are notes. If you have any thoughts, views on a new introduction to the model please get in touch:
h2cmng @ yahoo.co.uk What do you feel needs to be explained? Which audience should be addressed in the first instance? What assumptions can be made? ....? Many thanks PJ ]

Notes I intro for 2010

Notes II intro for 2010

Notes (II) for a 2010 introduction to the Health Career Model

... Where to start?

By its very nature as already suggested Hodges' model is difficult to explain. There are so many elements that demand our attention and so many avenues to run. Despite revealing one heading to be followed, Murphy (2002) describes how a theory of concepts is still elusive. From this we might focus purely on nursing and take a professional stance. We should be able after all to assume solid grounds for the system that supports nursing: namely nurse education. There is no need to do this as existing theories of concepts can provide a vehicle for explanation and research of Hodges' model.

Frequently acknowledged as a science AND an art, the individual-group axis in Hodges' model and the accent on communication makes individual and group psychology as much a pivotal source of knowledge as human anatomy and physiology. There are differences in the methods of verification, but the dependency is there and evident in the core nursing curriculum. Even though psychology remains a young science, resort to psychology is advantageous in other respects as the development of cognitive science and computer science can also inform our thought and research on Hodges' model. Fundamental to this is the basic form of the model construct the 2 x 2 matrix.

There are a great multitude of models that take this 2 x 2 matrix form. Apart from mathematics examples one the most commonly cited and influential is the so-called Johari window model of Harry Ingham and Joseph Luft which dates from 1955. Luft and Ingham were psychologists who created their model at the University of California, Los Angeles, while researching group dynamics. The Johari model has found a home in soft systems problems and can now be found in many other variations and one-off examples. There are whole books devoted to the subject of '2 x 2', an acknowledgment indeed of their utility and ubiquity (Lowy and Hood, 2004). From the OHP transparencies of old to the latest data projection forms, the 2 x 2 matrix is the tool of choice in the management consultant's armamentarium. This special cognitive device can also serve the (global) health and social care community and do so right across the board*. ...

Ref:
http://www.amazon.com/Power-Matrix-Thinking-Decisions-Management/dp/0787972924

Additional links:

http://hodges-model.blogspot.com/2008/02/big-book-of-concepts.html

http://hodges-model.blogspot.com/2010/02/notes-for-2010-introduction-to-health.html

*I would not include that last sentence in a new introduction, but it completes the post.

Putting 'care' in a holistic frame

How many frames do you need?

*infocare: care demographics, directories, media, literacies...

care communication, self care, care ethics, care philosophy, emotional care, pastoral (green) care, therapeutic care, care beliefs, interpersonal care, MENTAL HEALTH CARE cognitive care, holistic care, care responsibility, care ecology	emergency care, physical care, care model, theory, plan, care assessment, evaluation, care curricula, intervention, care process, evidenced care, BASIC NURSING CARE intensive care, coronary care, special care baby unit, *infocare, nursing care, medical care, health care, e-care, surgical care
collaborative care, child care, personal care, older adult care, informal care, SOCIAL CARE, family care, care education, community care, care community, residential care, care dependency, abusive care, care risks	duty of care, care policy, care provision, inspection, standards, care economics, care outcomes, care legislation, care home, care contract, care advocacy, care quality, CARE AID, care qualification, regulation, State care, private care, care insurance, CARE RIGHTS, care service engagement, prison care

Don't forget the 5th, virtual, spiritual frame?

Where is that?
It is wherever you need it to be. ...

Additional suggestions welcome: h2cmng at yahoo.co.uk

Conceptual spaces and innovative environments

Continuing to read Scott Berkun's the myths of innovation there is a really useful reference and illustrative source for Hodges' model.

The reference I must chase is - according to Berkun on page 90 - Alex F. Osborn's excellent book Applied Imagination. It is Osborn who apparently coined brainstorming and the management and creative industry of which Hodges' model is a (small) part. There's much more here as the original brief on how to - has been corrupted, consequently failed in application and lost its potential.

Later in the text Scott highlights the importance of environment and management's contribution to creating and protecting innovative assets (teams), that may not be valued in the rest of the organization. Berkun quotes Tom Kelly (IDEO) who notes that:

Innovation flourishes in greenhouses. What do I mean by a greenhouse? A place where the elements are just right to foster the growth of good ideas. Where's the heat, light, moisture, and plenty of nurturing. The greenhouse we're talking about, of course, is the workplace, the way spaces take shape in offices and teams work together. p.103.

Guess what - does this h2cm translation make sense to you....?

Light	Heat
Moisture	Nurturing

'Light'? Well I know there's E=mc² but here it's about purpose, leadership, spirit and belief.
'Heat'? This is the current physical element, technical white heat, global heat and need.
'Nurturing'? Great managers nurture and create the political space for innovation.
'Moisture'? Well this is to be found in the sociological domain: think about it....! ;-)

I never thought of Hodges' model as a greenhouse, but then it is far more than a brainstorming plug-in. Maybe it can act as a catalyst for change for you?

h2cmng at yahoo.co.uk

Ref. Osborn, Alex (1953). Applied Imagination: Principles and Procedures of Creative Problem Solving. New York, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. ISBN 978-0023895203.

Ack: Scott Berkun.

h2cm: fixed or primary concepts the push and pull of nursing

When commentators, students and others write of the primary or core concepts of nursing what does this mean in terms of Hodges' model [h2cm]?

For quite some time I have been describing Hodges' model as a cognitive - conceptual space. This suggests that there are fixed concepts within the care domains. Yes, they may vary according to the context and over time, but if concepts were arrows and our aim is true then h2cm would provide the ideal target. It on this care matrix that we really could take aim and nail the kernels of knowledge that make up our care activities.

Is it a mistake to venture that for people to talk of basic nursing care, essential care needs, that there must be some fixed ideal out there; an ideal that nurses, society and policy makers can hang discussion and debate upon? And let's face it there is much to debate - mental health stigma, obesity, nutritionism, heart disease, dementia, unplanned pregnancies, funding, access, poverty. ...

Medical sociology has done and continues to do society at large a great service. It forces practitioners to look over their shoulder and take in the social and cultural forces that influence health. As a question for further deliberation within medical / clinical sociology we might ask: How are the concepts in Hodges' model fixed? There are several possible answers:

1. Someone determines that concepts a, b, c, d are in care domains 1, 2, 3, 4. The question of whether Hodges' model (or any other conceptual resource) is classed as evidence based depends on how that determination is made.

2. Alternately, the structure of the model provided by the axes, could act as a skeleton. This might serve as a boot strap breathing life into the empty spaces created by this structure. The first instances of concepts might then arise like some sort of quantum event - self, other, temperature, time, height, mood. ...

3. As (medical) sociology, philosophy and psychology continue to reveal, we also need to accept of course that society, culture and language are all inextricably linked and they pre-empt that empty space, predetermining what will be written (thought and reflected) there.

4. This external influence is a must if those working in the health and social care professions are to communicate with those 'outside' (public involvement can only run so far?). It is not so much a case of common ground, as common space and the freedom and opposition that this affords. this is essential for communication amid what is variously called - multidisciplinary working and integrated care. Here there must be a degree of latitude between different disciplines' usages of terms. This must provide common understanding or some close approximation and yet still be safe.

So rather than empty space the care domains are really full of care concepts all waiting on tenterhooks, to see whether they will get to aggrandise and become 'complex care needs'. Will the assessor / care evaluator pick them - from what is initially a virtual crowd? Go on make their day: care-fully!

Conceptual heavy lifting ...

Whether you are teacher, lecturer or a student we are all lifelong learners.

As the new academic year starts in the Northern hemisphere, students will have new concepts to learn. They must also integrate these concepts with previous learning and experiences. Remember that while concepts are:

floaty, airy, light, abstract

collect enough of them and they become weighty and a confused delight of several degrees of significance.

Then health and safety dictates three things:

1. No heavy lifting
2. Do not omit vital concepts
3. Those concepts you do have - weigh them - carefully.

So, how do you manage your conceptual loads?


Original image source:
Scrap grab http://www.lifting-world.co.uk/equipment.htm

Birds in paper cages: Cognitive spaces with a little isotropy

In Consciousness Explained, Dennett (1991) provides further support for my belief in the significance of Hodges’ model:

Any of the things you have learned can contribute to any of the things you are currently confronting. That at least is the ideal. This feature is called isotropy by Fodor (1983), the power, as Plato would say, of getting the relevant birds to come, or at least to sing out, whenever they are needed. p.279.

Dennett highlights the fact that we are not isotropic. There are many often comedic instances in which people are slow or fail to fully appraise the significance of new data. This point reinforces the need and role for Hodges’ model providing not just one of Plato’s metaphorical aviaries (with knowledge in the form of the birds), but at least four (five - with spiritual claims to know-ledge).

Next spring I will return to the conceptual spaces paper I started and last saved in September 2008, how time flies! (I do finish stuff eventually - it's not easy this 'part-time' lark). As already posted on W2tQ there is more inspiration if needed. Drawing upon the cognitive science and computing literature the objectives of Peter Gardenfors’ book Conceptual Spaces are made clear from the outset:

'... is to show that a conceptual mode based on geometrical and topological representations deserves at least as much attention in cognitive science as the symbolic and associationistic approaches’. p.2 ....

'This is a book about the geometry of thought. A theory of conceptual spaces will be developed as a particular framework for representing information on the conceptual level.’ p.2.

Further reading:

Jerry A. Fodor (2000) The modularity of mind.

The Frame Problem Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Nursing - a model with 'glocal' aspirations

Reading through Dan Pink's book again I came across this ....

The rise of Empathy has even begun to color parental advice. In a recent survey of of Australian information technology managers, 90 percent said they would not recommend that their own children pursue careers in the L(ogic)-Directed field of software engineering. What would they recommend their children do instead? "I'd rather my kids opt for nursing as a profession," said Joseph Michaels, who works for a telecommunications company in Sydney. "It has both global and local demand." p.165.

And wherever nurses travel so too must the reflective tools they employ.

In the paper on Hodges' model and Michel Serres I wrote the following:

The scholastic 3Rs alone are no longer sufficient to equip youngsters for current and future challenges. Wither health literacy without digital, information and visual literacy (accessibility issues acknowledged)? Carroll and Rosson (2007) recognise the moral imperative of participative design. If technology has the capacity to change, people must be involved in that change. Are governments granted the electorate they deserve? The ability to appreciate what lies between analysis and synthesis is the 21st century touchstone. In being educated to care for others, self, and the planet there is a need for a generic model that can be taught globally, across curricula, cultures, and ethnic divides. Janus-like we must combine the local and global, achieving glocal perspectives (Erikson, 2001, chap.19).

Daniel H. Pink (2006) A whole new mind, How to thrive in the new conceptual age, Cyan, p. 165.

Eriksen, T.H. (2001). Small Places, Large Issues, Pluto Press.

Michel Serres on W2tQ

Michel Serres: A blog

'cogeographic' or 'cogneographic' - concepts situated and abstract

The term 'cogeographic' materialised while writing a short article for the nursing press on Hodges' model.

Searching SCIENCE DIRECT and similar academic resources I thought I had found the word relating to geography, borders, ethnic groups and geopolitics, but now it seems to have disappeared....?

So I am not 100% sure whether cogeographic is a neologism. In some ways cogneographic better suits my purpose. That Matrix associated addition is a rather bizarre coincidence given the word's status and so with that I should explain how my lexical arrival here came about. ...

I was focusing on two fundamental claims in Hodges' model. Namely:

• The model is situated;
• The model assumes that concepts can be located within its knowledge domains.

For me, cogeographic (cogneographic) conjoins the cognitive (cognition) involved in defining, representing and using concepts in conceptual spaces; AND the finding that knowledge is invariably situated - that is knowledge has a geography.

Philo and Pickstone (2009) highlight the work of Haraway:

No knowledge, however ‘scientific’ or prestigious, can ever truly come from nowhere; it can not but originate somewhere, being thoroughly situated, in Donna Haraway’s (1991) valuable terminology; and it commonly bears marks of that origin - situation wherever it might then travel. p.651.

This combination of physical and mental (abstract) location then supports the use of a metric or measure. I suppose what I am thinking about is GIS for concepts - which in turn is the semantic web?

Should I locate any sources I will update this post, or if you can direct me to any please let me know: h2cmng at yahoo.co.uk

Reference:

Philo, C., Pickstone, J. (2009). Unpromising configurations: Towards local historical geographies of psychiatry, Health & Place, 15, 3, 649-656.

The domain once removed ...

When we reflect or physically interact with the world it is easiest to effect those things nearest to us. From an early age - stationary - we learn to look and reach.

Sometimes however it is those things that are remote, inaccessible that may be significant and deserving of our attention.

Imagine yourself placed in any of Hodges' knowledge domains as if in a prison cell.

The knocks on two walls clearly come to our attention. There - is another domain that remains off-limits.

This domain is the cognitive blind-spot: which will be yours today?

Image source: Fallingpixel.com

The Conceptual Age needs tools to catch, match and patch ...

I have finally read some of Dan Pink's book A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age.

The graphic copied here from the book is interesting for this blog and its readers by both what is included - the conceptual age and what is omitted.

Pink's graphic supports and reinforces what I have felt for many years. Namely, that in Hodges' model we have a conceptual framework fit for our time and purposes. Looking at the figure developmentally then of course we think conceptually from a very early age in order to make sense of self, other, world and future.

Pink's graphic is interesting in that as depicted here we have not reached the knowledge age as yet. While these ages are discrete when conducting health and social care and other activities the boundaries are of course unclear and fuzzy.

Being in the conceptual age we need tools that can catch our care and related concepts. A stage that makes them accessible for reflection and association.

Moving further towards the knowledge age we then need tools that can recognise patterns in our concepts and begin to match them.

For safety's sake we then need to recognise the important concepts missed in our assessments, problem solving, project management and service improvement processes ... These tools will be able to suggest and patch the gaps in our framework and hence our understanding.

Image original source: http://elearningtech.pbworks.com/f/daniel-pink-conceptual-age.png

Additional links:

Dan Pink - A Whole New Mind

'conceptual spaces' on W2tQ

'concepts' on W2tQ

Reflecting on this it is a shame that there is no Innocent Age any longer or what there is often cut short.
The least we can do is to try to preserve it for as long as possible ...

European Science Foundation invites proposals for high-level research conferences to take place in 2011

The European Science Foundation invites scientists to submit proposals for high-level research conferences to take place in 2011 within the framework of its Research Conferences Scheme in the following scientific domains:

• Molecular Biology+
• Brain, Technology and Cognition
• Mathematics
• Physics/Biophysics and Environmental Sciences
• Social Sciences and Humanities

This appears to provide a golden opportunity for a creative and innovative group of academics to put a proposal together. Would it be timely to revisit:

• visualization in the humanities

Or, to boldly go and explore:

• conceptual frameworks for global health
• structures in conceptual space to support health and social care
  
• 21st Century models for health and social care*
• ....?

* That include public (mental) health and health promotion.