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ContentsTUTORIAL FOURThe association of ideas is one of the most important ways in which we create meaning. When clustering, allow your mind to associate freely. Try to avoid pre-determining the cluster titles as you will tend to recreate habitual interpretions of reality. In modelling we are often striving to allow new meanings to emerge so we try to let associations form without prejudice. When we have created a cluster of ideas it is to the whole cluster that we assign meaning even though there may sometimes be contradictions or other anomolies. The clustering tools in Concept Explorer are designed to make all this easier. A much quicker way of creating clusters of thoughts is to depress the Shift button and Left Click on ideas that seem to be associated with one another. As you do so you will see that each is highlighted by little dots at the corners. Now take your finger off the Shift button and select Object in the top toolbar. Select Group into cluster from the drop down menu and all the objects you highlighted will be grouped together. A text box will invite you to name this cluster. Cluster titles can, if you wish, be a single word that captures the essence of the contents. You will find now that you can move your cluster as a whole as well as still being able to move its contents independently. Continue creating clusters with the objects you have written. If you have spare objects left over delete them by clicking on the red Eraser symbol in the right toolbar – a Left Click with this will remove an object. If you erase something accidentally select Undo in the Edit menu When all your thoughts have been clustered, move the clusters around so that their position makes sense for you. Is there a connection between one cluster and another? Perhaps one comes before another in time or else you can see a causal connection between some clusters. You can represent this connection with an arrow. Arm the curser by clicking on the arrow in the right side toolbar and click on the cluster to be connected and drag to the target cluster. As you build up the arrows you may find that you need t re-arrange some of your clusters to avoid collisions and improve legibility. You have now created a model!
Instead of creating objects and then writing in them you can move rapidly by selecting the Brainstorming mode from the Model menu on the top toolbar. You will find you have a text box in which you can enter your ideas as they occur to you, ending each with Return. If you select Show List, you can read the ideas generated and they may trigger further thoughts. When you select Finish your ideas will appear as objects on your whiteboard. You can then group them as you like. Alternatively you can select Create Cluster as soon as you have written a series of associated ideas and you save an intermediate step. This latter method is particularly useful if you are copying a model that already exists.
We looked at how to create clusters direct from a brainstorm list and how to make clusters from ideas you have highlighted using Shift and a mouse click. You will notice that the software always gathers your ideas into a compact cluster, making it easier to grasp all the ideas as a single concept. Now if you move an idea in or out of a cluster, highlighting the cluster with a Right Click and selecting Re-organise cluster from the Object menu will re-group the ideas neatly as before. Your attention is not needed for the graphical work as you can simply dump ideas together and let Re-organise cluster do the rest for you. Sometimes you may want to cluster clusters and you can treat them largely as if they were primary objects. This can be especially useful if you need to structure something very complex, in which case, after your intitial clustering, selecting Simplify from the Model menu gives you a view without the content of the cluster. Now you have your clusters described only by their titles and you can model these in turn, creating clusters to contain them if you wish. Note that clusters will be contained but not re-organised so you will need to position your clusters with care. Selecting Develop from the Model menu will re-draw the contents of the clusters. |
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