Concept Mapping and Education
First off, thank you to the group for putting together a great presentation. I throughly enjoyed the readings and the activities that were selected.
Concept Mapping in the classroom definitely has a purpose for all types of learners, but I believe that in order for this tool to be utilized to its full potential, students still should understand what it means to be a good notetaker. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have my elementary students take notes all day every day, but we do work on selecting what information should be recorded to make a proper “note.” When students begin to see what important information should be recorded such as (for example): dates, names, or definitions, then they can begin to understand that everything that is written or explained by someone doesn’t necessarily have to be recorded down in their books.
We know that students learn in different ways. Some students find that writing down everything works for them, while others need to record a visual to help retain ideas. Using Concept Maps follows a similar pattern to note taking, you can’t just assume students are going to know that they have to bold letters, use various colours or draw arrows to connect ideas. Using graphic organizers before jumping directly into concept maps I found to be way to introduce the idea. Various templates can be selected for students to use and it helps to visualize the potential connections between ideas and the students can choose to be creative and highlight/colour in the bubbles.
Using technology to support concept maps does allow for the map to be neatly presented, but when some schools don’t have the daily access to computers or what not, they are limited to the amount of time that can be spent on mapping activities. If some schools only have access to technology once a week ( a shame, but it happens all the time), the purpose and the concepts described within the map has the potential to be lost completely. Many of the concept mapping tools that are available do require personal information to be inputed, this is also problematic for privacy laws within the school system especially for educators who teach students younger then 13 (usually the age minimum).
I see concept mapping as another tool to provide our learners with in their utility belts. By providing more choice/options for the learner to represent knowledge and understanding, we allow for the learner to choose how they want their learning to be represented for others to see, allowing for personalization of the learning experience.
Posted in: Week 09: Visual-Intensive Learning
Danielle 8:02 am on July 6, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Jon,
I have also enjoyed this week’s presentation! The concept maps are phenomenal!
I think you make an excellent point about the need for our learners to be able to take notes effectively. I find that my students have their own individual style of notetaking and the style will vary depending on whether learners are visual, verbal, aural, logical, physical, etc. Their learning style will also determine whether they are social learners with a tendency to collaborate with learning technologies such as cmaps or whether they are more solitary learners with a tendency to figure things out on their own. Perhaps our job is to simply help them figure out what works best for them!
Danielle
danishaw 8:41 am on July 6, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Jon: I appreciate that point that you made with regards to access to technology. Perhaps one could include it at a potential “Pain Point”. Therefore I propose that the teacher could use such a tool to accommodate the visual learners during class-wide brainstorming activities. An open-source program that includes outline views as well to help to scaffold students throughout the process. Ultimately as you said, another tool to add to their learning utility belts!
Dani