Concept Mapping (a Group 4 Technology)

How many OTHER tools there are is anyone's guess!

I have chosen to explore Concept Mapping in greater detail.

Here is my concept map that I developed up last week using Text2Mindmap to assist me with planning for the second assignment for this course. (Sorry it is a bit small, but you get the idea.)

Consider also:-
1) Smartdraw
2) Mindjet
3) Word and Excel also have basic concept map tools. Try this link to assist in designing Excel based maps.

Planning and design is crucial with so many of the KLA's and just as importantly most of these digital technologies that we have been exploring.  I believe a concept mapping tool such as Text2Mindmap can be extremely helpful to all students and to all teachers in designing projects, planning writing, looking at relationships between concepts and reflecting.


SWOT of Concept Maps and their Potential Use in the classroom

STRENGTHS

• Can create structure and design to a task which can seem overwhelming in size
• Can help students see the ‘bigger picture'
• Can help students to identify relationships and inference to bigger concepts via the use of connectors
• Great tool for reflection, at the end of the task students can look back through the map to reflect on learnings, self assessment and achievement at each stage (depending on the topic).

 WEAKNESSES

• Can be based on someone’s perception of a subject and how one person’s brain works might be different to how another person’s brain works.
• Can be too complex for simple process problems

OPPORTUNITIES

• Some great planning tools exist with the concept map – it can be used quite effectively to plan writing assignments or projects.
• Can be used as a preliminary step to using other technologies including Glogster, Powerpoint, Movies and also to assist in designing lesson plans and units of work.

THREATS

• Because it can be quite a mentally demanding tool, there is a risk to zoning students out if the tool is not used properly.

Potential Use in the Classroom

1. For persuasive writing - instead of a plan in dot point form, what about a concept map that outlines the steps your students will take or arguments they will create to convince a reader that they should do something.
2. For Research Projects - instead of jumping straight into a task, what about a concept map that shows each of the concepts that need to be presented in the project and how they are linked to each other (ie relationships).
3. For designing - creating a concept map that shows how a bridge (eg) is going to be built and what materials are going to be used.
4. As a graphic organiser - excellent way to reflect/evaluate the learnings of a particular unit of work eg functions of the body.

This tool would encourage group collaboration and will assist in higher order thinking. Particularly as students are forced to think about structure and relationships to concepts within the larger concept.