Welcome to Make Cycle #3 in CLMOOC 2017!

“This is a way to get your working memory to carry more.”
William Klemm, professor of neuroscience at Texas A&M University
KQED: Making Learning Visible: Doodling Helps Memories Stick

Did you catch your breath during our CLMOOC break week? We hope you found some time to continue a project, strengthen your connections or maybe just walk away from your devices for an extended period of time. That’s all good.

Now, it’s time to … eh … draw on your experiences as we move into Make Cycle 3. Let’s doodle together!

Credit: Sheri Edwards, CC BY

“When you draw an object, the mind becomes deeply, intensely attentive.”
Milton Glaser, Drawing Is Thinking
The Atlantic “The Cognitive Benefits of Doodling”

Our favorite puzzles consist of simple sketches that suggest something. What do you think the above image is? No, really, take a guess. Is the image a bear climbing a tree? A giraffe walking by your window? A snake slithering across your beach towel? We need to step around to see. Turn things around, and get a different view. Try to think from another’s perspective. Believe in your own! Doodling allows us to see and think in new and different ways. Are you ready?

There are three reasons to get our sketching skills going:

• Memory – It helps improve it.
• Attention – It helps to focus it.
• Expression – It allows us to create and connect ideas.

How might you doodle?

• Paper and pencil
• Paint of all kinds
• Mud
• Chalk on the sidewalk
• An online website or app

As usual, we have multiple entry points for this Make Cycle. Each link below takes you to an app or example. Take a peek at the options, create, and invite each other to join in. And remember what Susan reminds us: There are no mistakes in doodling!

Pencil (quick ‘n’ easy)

• Doodle a speech bubble with a short poem or conversation
• Practice basic shapes and lettering; here are some places to give you inspiration:
  • Lettering (examples here)
  • Free calligraphy lettering practice sheets
  • Fireworks
  • Arrows
  • Signs
  • Visual alphabet by Dave Grey  
  • Miseducation of the Doodle by Sunni Brown
  • People talking
  • Lines, circles, shapes
  • Keys
  • Animal and emotion
  • Cut-out prop 
  • Basic Zentangle
  • Create a doodle puzzle

Ink (a bit more detail)

Dig a little deeper – doodle some shapes, some concepts, maybe think about some collaboration with other doodlers. Here’s a bunch of ideas to get you thinking:

• Interests and hobbies
• Happiness
• Making connections with people
• Respect, honor, celebrate people 
• Authenticity, truth, validity
• Scribble a line, share it with someone, and make it something else through remix art
• Collaborate on a Google drawing
• Calligraphy with markers
• Zentangle circles
• Calligraphy on fabric

Paint (brushes out)

How about really challenging yourself with some full on illustrations, perhaps like one of these:

• Doodling funny infographics — like the New York Times
• Use the Superimpose App by Tricia Fuglestad
• Do animated storytelling with ArtPad or another app
• Four Square
• 30 Day Drawing Challenge
• Illustration Friday
• Calligraphy on other surfaces
• Self-portrait avatar

And if all of the above is not enough for you, there are more ideas in these Slides. Alternatively, many novice doodlers took part in two recent challenges. You may want to use one of these as a springboard for your own first doodles:

• #DoodleADay   Information   Archive by @royanlee
• @Sketch50   Prompts   Gallery

Outside the lines (beyond doodling)

Maybe doodling isn’t your thing. Here are some other ways to share with the community this week:

• Add a video entry to our CLMOOC FlipGrid explaining your tricks for remembering things…and/or respond to someone else’s FlipGrid post!
• Join the search for Chalkboard Man.
• Write a blog post about your experiences in CLMOOC so far this summer and new connections you have made.
• Join the CLMOOC postcard group, and doodle or use calligraphy to write a postcard to someone. Once you sign up, you’ll get an email that will give you access to everyone else’s addresses.
• Write a story about the runaway marker, or a dancing Zentangle, or…

Tinker around with additional tools and technology with our extended appendix.

And don’t forget that you can get a badge for doodling or other CLMOOC work.

Live Events

• Join our Make With Me live broadcast with chat on Tuesday, August 1, 5p ET/2p PT/9pm UTC live streamed with a synchronous chat here at CLMOOC. This session will also be recorded so you can watch the archive later.
• We will be hosting a Twitter Chat for Make Cycle #3 on Thursday, August 3 at 7p ET/4p PT/11pm UTC with the #clmooc hashtag.

Places to share

There are many places to share in CLMOOC. Some are listed below.

Please note that you don’t have to share or even participate in all of these. In fact, most people don’t. Just choose the ones that work best for you, and have fun!

• In Google Plus, you can join and post to our CLMOOC Community. Have conversations with participants, lurk around awhile as an art connoisseur of connected learning, or set up your art studio for conversations and creations. Be yourself; we — the community — are here to support each other as connected learners.
• On Twitter, we encourage you to follow and use the #clmooc hashtag this summer. You can also follow us at @clmooc.
• And/or post to the CLMOOC Facebook group.
• We also have a CLMOOC Flipgrid for video responses
• This week we have  a Google form for collecting doodle links, and you can see responses here.

Again lurk, share, and learn wherever works for you. At CLMOOC, it’s all good.

Thank you for doodlin’ with us!

Charlene Doland, Lauren Zucker, Ron Leunissen, Susan Watson, Helen DeWaard, and Sheri Edwards
CLMOOC Make Cycle 3 facilitators