Drawing into practice

This article examines the nature of drawing as a cognitive tool and how the framework of a virtual learning environment can be used to extend its capacity to externalize creative ideas. The preparatory drawings a student makes often remain private, considered secondary to the completed artwork itself. Within such paperwork however, lies evidence of their articulation of thought. This external expression onto paper, can transform the most tentative of possibilities into expansive and refined ideas by entering into cycles of inspection, re-conception and re examination. This paper identifies parallels between this iterative and developmental activity and the social and conversational structures of a website. Specifically, it examines how a community of shared practice can reinforce understanding of the activity of creative thinking itself.