Network Drawing: A Meta-Learning Tool?

Claire Scanlon & Paul Grivell - Northbrook College, Sussex

We never observe the source, nor the springing forth, but only what is outside the source, the source
becomes reality external to itself and always again without source or far from source.
Maurice Blanchot (1971)

Abstract
Springing forththis paper outlines our creative enquiry into the drawing game Network Drawing,
considering its potential application as a meta-learning tool for group work. We offer a brief history of the
development and application of the game in our creative practice, teaching and beyond. We describe
our ethos and evolving research methodology, pointing speculatively to a web of relevant theory. We
then report on our workshop activity at conference and debate questions arising from the experience
and feedback gathered. Reflecting on this we consider the use and value of the term meta-learning and
contextualise the workshop experience and feedback in relation to the term. Lastly we offer an invitation
to those interested to play the game with others and to reflectively engage with the developing network
of participant researchers interested in this practice. This is very much a work-in-progress, and so may it
remain

Key words: drawing, network, meta-learning

Origins
Network Drawing sprang out of a need to think visually in a complex, collaborative photo-editing task
that involved looking for connections between images. It seemed a good idea to record the process by
using a line to connect images, which then became nodes in an unfolding network of lines.

Somehow, the collaborative drawing process and the compelling image of an unfolding network hi-
jacked our interest. This discovery happened to coincide with the start of a collaborative art project
centring on ideas of growth. In establishing and co-ordinating a group of a dozen or more artist-
participants we began to use Network Drawing as an induction and warm-up activity at each meeting of
the group. An account of the process and an archive of the images generated in this phase are available
at: http://isthismybeginning.com/network_drawings.html.

Playing The Game
To encourage interested readers to constructively engage with Network Drawing beyond this article we
offer an on-line Prezi presentation link to contextualize the game. This link offers a succinct outline of
the mutable rules, whilst pointing to a number of practical issues you may wish to consider if intending to
play with others. It also gives a synopsis of much else in this paper.

http://prezi.com/-nxsjcmvgwgh/network-drawing-a-meta-learning-tool/

This open educational resource is public, free and re-usable under a Creative Commons Attribution-
NonCommercial-ShareAlike Licence.



Screenshot of Network Drawing Prezi

Methodology, Ethos & Scope
The boom in network research is part of a general shift, beginning in the second half of the twentieth
century, away from individualistic, essentialist and atomistic explanations towards more relational,
contextual and systemic understandings.
Borgatti and Foster (2003)


Networked Slime Mould - Dept of Plant Sciences, Oxford University

The network is the iconic signifier of our social, communication, organisational and security systems. As
a paradigm it exemplifies an epistemic shift in our world consciousness. As a model of practice the
network informs our work methodologically, in process and in outcome. Hence we conduct this research
(anti) project generatively and socially; it is co-researched, open-sourced and open-ended. If youre
looking for an answer to our questioning title we invite you to help us find it

So far we have referred to Network Drawing as a game, though in many respects this description is
misleading as the activity doesnt conform to many of the normal conditions and expectations of
gameplay. There are no winners or losers, the rules are mutable and the activity of drawing could last
indefinitely. Depending on the context in which it is played it could be described as an exercise, an ice-
breaker, a meditation, occupational therapy or simply a past-time. It is a process with an outcome, both
of which may be reflected upon.

Since its inception as a graphic organiser and its subsequent development as a structuring event in
the context of an art project, we and others have played the game with many different interest groups.
We have also taken it on the road to the Drawing Research Network Conference 2012 - Drawing in
STEAM, where we explored it in collaboration with a programmer and played with participants from a
range of disciplinary backgrounds.



Network Drawing Workshop Outcomes - Drawing Research Network Conference, Wimbledon 2012

Along the way we have informally enlisted a growing constituency of participant researchers and
maintain communications with this group through social media in the form of an open facebook group.

see/join here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/186066274882991/

A number of our collaborators have reported back positively on drawings made in a range of contexts
including: Art School, Call Centre Training, Care Home residents with dementia, autistic children, down
the pub with friends, and at home with children on a wet Sunday afternoon.

As a result of these experiences we are struck by the potential for further research and development in
the following fields:

the pedagogic - with students and staff across a broad range of subject areas
the therapeutic - in care/social work with specific groups and dementia patients
in creative practices - with artists, designers, crafts people and programmers
in organisational/change management/staff development

As researchers we are interested in the bricolage (Kincheloe & Berry 2009 Levi-Strauss 1962
Schwitters 1933) and Actor Network Theory (Callon, Latour, Law circa 1980), as research (art) forms
that approach the problem of complexity from differing points of entry. We aim to tease out and test their
relative methodological similarities viz thick description, and their differences in and of interpretation.
To this end we have positioned Network Drawing as our Point Of Entry Text or POET (Kincheloe and
Berry 2009) through which we are networking our literature review across a range of disciplinary and
interdisciplinary boundaries in order to situate our research practice in a broad and ever expanding
theoretical eco-system - though we hasten to add that we are curious visitors in many of these fields
and as such may have a curious take on some.

Thinking Through the Body
Embodiment in learning has been a key aspect of our previous research (Scanlon & Grivell 2012,
Scanlon & Grivell 2011) and it continues to be so in our hypothesis on Network Drawing.

In brief, we draw on developments in cognitive science and philosophies of consciousness such as
enactivist theory (Maturana & Varela 1998), which re-situate and embody cognition outside of the brain
and in the world (No 2009). No explains how our body schemas are extended through the use of tools
and how we think and learn by doing. We connect this line of thinking to ideas of distributed
consciousness (Salomon 1997) and the canon of constructivist pedagogy (John Dewey, Carl Rogers
etc). The interdisciplinary formation of Somaesthetics (Shusterman 2012) has also come to inform our
thinking and doing in its pragmatic re-evaluation of the bodys importance in philosophies of self-
knowledge. Shusterman draws attention to a mind in the body culture in eastern philosophy, contrasting
it with the traditional western philosophical binary of mind and body.

Drawing is a physically active form of engagement with the world - it can engage the whole body,
especially if one is standing and moving around, as is often the case when making a group Network
Drawing. Crucially in the playing of a Network Drawing game participants leave a trace of their action as
sign, describing the paths taken in the space of drawing and the encounters/intersections made with the
traces of other players in the unfolding structure.

Angela Rogers (2008) posits many of the underpinning arguments for drawing in a social context
relevant to our own study, arguing for,

a reassessment of the relationship between drawing and identity, a move from reading drawing as
primarily individual acts of self-expression to a consideration of drawing as a social act of connection
and identification.
Rogers (2008)

Though we emphasise that there are no specialist skills involved in network drawing it is still relevant to
conceive of drawing as an expressive act of cognitive mapping. Petherbridge (2010) points to,

...the simple real world equation that linear drawing is a record of movement that implies movement, a
reciprocity that means that every drawing invites a spectator and an interpreter. In the sense that a line
is a conduit of meaning or ductusThe linear paths that the spectator/interpreter perceives or infers in
the drawing constitute cognitive mapping.
Petherbridge (2010)

Furthermore, she makes evident that in drawing,

the contiguity between the action of drawing and the resulting trace as sign for that action is loaded
with as Barthes put it an energon, a labor which reveals - which makes legible - the trace of its pulsing
and expenditure.
Petherbridge (2010)

In the context of the network drawing game an individual's linear path maps not only their particular
journey through the increasingly complex network of lines but also their willingness or ability to connect
with the unfolding structure. We contend that this capacity may provide opportunities for individual
reflection on meta-learning in group work.


Meta-Learning - Mapping the Debate
In education the concept of meta-learning is primarily attributed to Maudsley (1979) who described it as,

the cognitive process by which learners become aware of and increasingly in control of habits of
perception, inquiry, learning, and growth that they have internalized.
Maudsley (1979)

Thus it is premised on two key processes for learners; the development of self-knowledge of their
learning, and their movement to take control of that learning (Biggs 1985). This development of skill in
learning is distinct from conventional learning skills offered to support students.

However, assumptions about the capacity for meta-learning tools to diagnose and improve learning may
themselves be questioned.

'good' learning is not necessarily synonymous with reflecting upon learning or having consciousness
of one's learning strategies. Correspondingly, poor learning strategies can be deeply embedded and
therefore difficult to manipulate...problematic learners do not necessarily improve their study strategies
just because they are alerted to these strategies andin many cases, problematic learners lack the
very awareness of how to go about study in a more effective fashion.
Connolly & Ward (2010)

Given this paradox Connolly and Ward assert that meta-learning's utility is very much predicated on the
context of support that surrounds it: a position we endorse.

Nonetheless meta-learning is big business. Go google the term and you encounter a growing industry of
business consultants selling meta-learning solutions for team building, for optimising efficiency and
maximising profit. These solutions queasily adopt western and eastern philosophies to persuade the
business and education communities of the value of training in meta-learning, or MLP (meta-learning
programmes). They include established tools such as the Reflections on Learning Inventory (RoLI),
Belbin Team Roles Report, the VARK Guide to Learning Styles, and the contentious positivity ratio
offered by Losada Line Consulting. Most rely on text-based questionnaires to determine their solutions.
Without entering into a sustained critique of these textual, question-based, test orientated meta-learning
tools one need only look at their websites to recognise that the visual and somatic are not significant
components of their methods, despite some recognition of the importance of these aspects in learning.

Further, the psychometric operationalism of most proprietary meta-learning tools results in quantitative
and prescriptive solutions that are highly contestable in their generalisations when applied to the unique,
specific circumstances and histories of real, individual learners and their subjects of study. These
prescriptions are derived from pre-programmed algorithms applied to responses to a sequence of
closed text-based questions that tie a range of respondents habits and behaviours to their learning
propensities. Whilst some proponents recognise this as a problem in their accounts of how to interpret
and apply the results of inventories or tests, they still offer up a seemingly conclusive, statistically
based account of the individual respondents propensities in their approach to learning.

Beyond the specific problematics of operationalism, when meta-learning theory is reviewed in the light
of cognitive science, we encounter human beings biological and cultural pre-disposition to avoid self-
awareness.

This special situation of knowing how we know is traditionally elusive for our Western culture, We are
keyed to action and not to reflection, so that our personal life is generally blind to itself. It is as though a
taboo tells us: it is forbidden to know about knowing
Maturana and Varela (1987)

Using the example of the blind spot in visual perception Maturana and Varela remind us that under
normal circumstances we do not see that we do not see in that part of our visual field, and that it takes a
simple optical test to make present this discontinuity in our perception of the world.

see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_spot_(vision)

It may be that we need meta-learning tools to enable us to recognise our blind spots in learning, but we
suggest that such tools need to be enactive, given our understanding that learning is not simply taking
place in the learner but in their co-existence with others and the environment, which of course includes
the meta-learning tool itself.

Reflections In & On Network Drawing
As a visual and somatic practice Network Drawing offers multiple dimensions for reflection in and on the
game: from becoming aware of ones levels of emotional and physical comfort or discomfort in the
process of drawing with others, to noting ones attitude to the rules, to drawing per se, and the pace,
range and quality of line drawn. All of these attributes can speak volumes to those able to access them.
However, it is also evident that tacit feelings and knowledge (Polyani 1967) can be made more available
to consciousness if they are brought into language and shared with others (Rogers 2008).

In speculating about Network Drawing as a meta-learning opportunity we have used video recording to
produce a supervisory perspective, enabling participants to step-back from the action and see
themselves as other, in a kind of action re-play.



Screenshot of facebook page with video of network drawing activity and comments from participants

This critical distance is also achieved by simply moving the drawing from the horizontal plane of action
to a vertical plane of reflection, where the face-to-face perspective pre-disposes us to interrogate and
reflect.



Making a drawing (in the horizontal plane) - Network Drawing Workshop, University of Brighton Learning &
Teaching Conference 2013

This shift allows a move from the self-centred action of the micro, to a consideration of the macro bigger
picture. Participant response at this stage is often characterised by an appreciation of the aesthetic
appearance of the drawing, its spatial qualities for instance and even a sense of pride in its production.



Colour & B/W Network Drawing Outcomes (in vertical plane) - Network Drawing Workshop
University of Brighton Learning & Teaching Conference 2013

In structuring the University of Brighton Learning and Teaching Conference Network Drawing Workshop
we conducted two simultaneous games, with one group using coloured pens to enable individual paths
to be identified, whilst the other group used black pens only. We also videoed one game from
overhead, intending to play back and discuss the process, though time didnt permit this on the day.
Lo-fi version viewable here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/186066274882991/ -
!/photo.php?v=10152855508635171&set=o.186066274882991&type=2&theater

To address the specific question of whether Network Drawing may facilitate meta-leaning in group work
we also introduced a spatialised key word prompt sheet as an aid for the reflection process, with the
possibility for participants to connect, cross out or add in words, and make additional comments.



Completed prompt-words map reflection/evaluation form

Our prompt words were: constraints reach judgment dynamic variation anxiety calming compelling
attitude engagement focus awareness pace exciting pleasure flow limited others irritating ease rhythm
fluidity range decisiveness interaction analytic frustrating relaxing useful mindfulness conviviality
suggestive self

Words added in by participants were: addictive thought-provoking beautiful silly tedious balanced
bollocks embarrassing ownership pressure conform compulsive choice play game overthrow chase
rules agitation aggression difference sameness challenge display hide ego therapeutic liberating
meditative nodal-relationships scratchy

Given the HE academic context for this workshop our participants were all likely to be highly successful
learners, so we anticipated a level of informed critical response. What surprised us was the degree of
polarization and strength of feeling in those responses.

One participant in the B&W drawing remarked afterwards that as ones line became submerged with
others it made it possible for people to act more independently or disruptively than in the colour drawing,
suggesting that where individuals lines were subsumed in the overall picture it was easier to get away
with non-compliance and disruption. Alternatively it may also indicate a need to assert individuality and
difference, whereas when individuality is preserved in co-operation there is less need to assert
difference. Thus network drawing can reveal attitudes to co-operation.

One particular area of interest is in participants interpretation and/or response to the rules and
expectations of the game. The range of deviation from the rules varies depending on the cause, with
any confusion about the rules at the start of the game generally becoming clarified through observation
of the action. But at its most extreme the individual asserts their non-conformity by disregarding both the
concept and the image of a network in order to display their own path. We have seen this behaviour
most often when drawing with other artists whose need to assert individuality can be pressing.

In his interdisciplinary study On Creativity David Bohm (2004) suggests that our normalised mentality is
that of a self-sustaining confusion,

when the mind is trying to escape the awareness of conflict...in which one's deepest intention is really
to avoid perceiving the fact, rather than sort it out or make it clear.
Bohm (2004)
The resulting drawing makes evident this self-sustained confusion as a visible line. (see B&W drawing
on the right above) In deliberately misinterpreting the rules or maintaining a non-conformist approach,
individuals may be seeking to avoid the internal conflict that arises when being asked to work
collaboratively with others.

One participants feedback helped us understand that although many remarked on similarities with
physical ice-breaker type games such as twister, the group momentum or directional flow around the
drawing space left her feeling rather isolated as she was swept along, rather than enabling her, as
others were, to find opportunities for sociability. Whether this observation was useful to her in bringing to
mind the tension between co-operation and compliance in group working, it certainly made us aware of
the potential for negative affect in the activity.

Participants wrote that they found the game calming, meditative, pleasurable, addictive, compelling,
liberating, exciting, thought-provoking and engaging. Others also found the activity irritating for a variety
of reasons - one person attributed their irritation to the crowding effect on the overall attractiveness of
the drawing, another to the scratchy sound of the pens and yet another to the compliance with the rules
of the structure. One participant even expressed outraged skepticism, declaring the activity to be
bollocks.

Indeed the paradox of the feedback in this academic context was how to separate the participants
critique of the game as a meta-learning tool from their experience of it as a meta-learning opportunity. In
other words whether they could see their experience as deriving as much from their prior conditioning,
assumptions and theories of group work as from the specific nature of the activity on offer. This is a
crucial question for participants to consider if the meta-learning opportunity is to be taken-up.

Certainly there may be a very real danger in interpreting others actions in this activity. We also
acknowledge through the ethos of the bricolage method, that our own investment and enthusiasm for
network drawing may influence our analysis. This reflexive awareness also endorses our resistance to
developing an interpretive schema for application by others. Whatever self-diagnosis or self-knowledge
an individual might come to through the game is for them to determine. Hence the work to be
undertaken in learning from the experience needs to be done by participants rather than done to them.

Very drawn to the idea that no-one but me will diagnose how I played. Can see the boxes but great that
I dont have to tick them.
From Participant Feedback Sheet

We also speculate that what Network Drawing gains through its inclusive base-level skill requirement
may be lost if it then fails to sustain interest or remain challenging enough to enable a group to achieve
flow. Cskszentmihlyi (1975) argues that the experience of flow is best attained in activities requiring
high levels of skill and challenge, yet Network Drawing requires no high level skills in drawing. However,
experience of the playing in the game suggests that something akin to Cskszentmihlyis account of
flow is readily attained, and participants often refer to their absorption in the task and the growing
complexity of that engagement as the networked structure grows.

In comparison to established meta-learning tools Network Drawing uses the visual and the kinesthetic
as primary means to engage participants. Verbal and written reflection may also be elicited, but we are
resistant to an approach that prescriptively diagnoses symptoms and extrapolates solutions from this
process of engagement and reflection.

Therefore, whilst we acknowledge the need to bring the experience of Network Drawing into language
through contextual guidance and supported reflection, we would eschew its use for categorical
diagnosis. Instead we propose that whatever insight becomes available to the participant is for
themselves to recognise and work with.

If Network Drawing facilitates the development of meta-learning capacity at all, it is as an opportunity,
rather than as a solution. Meantime we continue to play, explore and reflect on this practice through a
bricolage and offer up this opportunity to others. Should you wish to play do let us know how it goes

Biographies
Claire Scanlon and Paul Grivell work together on photography, media and art programmes at
Northbrook College, Sussex. They also collaborate as artists, researchers and writers.
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