When making decisions or planning actions, there are often points against the situation as well as for it. Verbal argument can result in the wrong decisions being made as the ‘winner’ is often the most senior person or the one who shouts the loudest. Better decisions are made by weighing up the pros and cons in a more organized fashion. The Force-Field Diagram uses a simple diagram to visually organize and display the arguments for and against a situation or action (see the illustration). Each argument or reason is shown as an arrow, pointing into a line, with either side of the line representing either side of the argument and the length of each arrow representing the weight or strength of the argument.
My name is Michael Sean Gallagher. I am a Lecturer in Digital Education at the Centre for Research in Digital Education at the University of Edinburgh. I am Co-Founder and Director of Panoply Digital, a consultancy dedicated to ICT and mobile for development (M4D); we have worked with USAID, GSMA, UN Habitat, Cambridge University and more on education and development projects. I was a researcher on the Near Futures Teaching project, a project that explores how teaching at The University of Edinburgh unfold over the coming decades, as technology, social trends, patterns of mobility, new methods and new media continue to shift what it means to be at university. Previously, I was the Research Associate on the NERC, ESRC, and AHRC Global Challenges Research Fund sponsored GCRF Research for Emergency Aftershock Forecasting (REAR) project. I was an Assistant Professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (한국외국어대학교) in Seoul, Korea. I have also completed a doctorate at University College London (formerly the independent Institute of Education, University of London) on mobile learning in the humanities in Korea.
