Book: Thinking as Communicating - Sfard (the intra- interpersonal domain)

Previously I wondered about a term that might combine thinking and the formation and process of mental mapping, the creation of a conceptual map - a mental conceptual geography - cogneography?

Thinking as Communicating

Finding Anna Sfard's 1998 paper this past week led me to her book. The following is from the introduction:

I define thinking as individualized form of interpersonal communication. The disappearance of the time-honored dichotomy is epitomized in the term commognition, which combines communication with cognition. The commognitive tenet implies that verbal communication, with its distinctive property of recursive self-reference, may be the primary source of humans’ unique ability to accumulate the complexity of their action from one generation to another.

Sfard's work will have to go on the 'to read' pile (part-time studies begin tomorrow), but it may help provide ways to understand and unravel the intra- and interpersonal domain within Hodges' model. The mathematical emphasis (even though I may struggle with this) is an added bonus.

Sfard, A. Thinking as communicating: Human development, the growth of discourses, and mathematizing. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Sfard, A. (1998). On two metaphors for learning and the dangers of choosing just one. Educational Researcher, 27(2), pp. 4-13.
http://www.colorado.edu/physics/phys4810/phys4810_fa08/4810_readings/Sfard.pdf

Countries, places and maps (Lahiri)

“The place to which you feel the strongest attachment

 isn’t necessarily the country you’re tied to by blood or birth:

 it’s the place that allows you to become yourself. 

This place may not lie on any map.”

– Jhumpa Lahiri
  

My source: Fred Dervin via mailinglist at cosmobilities.net

2013 Year of Piri Reis & Navigating the world of nursing care - in Jordan

The conference in Jordan is over it has been an intense and excellent two days, with a free day tomorrow. It has been a brilliant opportunity to share and learn not just about nursing, but travel, culture and some of the people that make up the global nursing community.

I am truly grateful to the Jordanian Nursing Council for accepting my abstract. The welcome and hospitality has been truly amazing.

In the flight magazine on the way here there was an article about Piri Reis, which reminded me of Paul Cunliffe's book about Pytheas.

From the UNESCO website:

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has agreed to declare 2013 the year of Piri Reis on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of a map he drew up that included seven continents, reported the Anatolia news agency. 

“This map marks a significant event in the history of the country and has enabled its collective knowledge to be transmitted through generations. As a rare world map from the 15th and 16th centuries, Piri Reis World Map is an invaluable piece of the world's documentary heritage as it provides insight on the history of its time. It is therefore part of the Memory of the World and should be made better known,” stated UNESCO.

The world-renowned Ottoman captain and cartographer Reis is best known for world maps and charts collected in his “Kitab-ı Bahriye” (Book of Navigation).

Source: http://www.todayszaman.com/newsDetail_getNewsById.action?newsId=294065

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piri_Reis_map

I have written before about Hodges' model as a map -

a cognitive periplus 

- for navigation through the complex world(s) of health and social care.

Would a new mariner take to the sea without a clear sky, a compass, map, or satnav? What then of our students?


Additional link: Please see the entry for Iran -

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/unesco/events/prizes-and-celebrations/celebrations/anniversaries-celebrated-by-member-states/2013/