Reflecting on Mind Maps
Prior to visiting the Visual Intensive Learning wiki, I considered mind maps a way for individuals rather than groups to organize information. I appreciate that a mind map can provide a quick indication of how well a concept and its relationship to other concepts have been understood. It can also encourage learning at a deeper level rather than at a surface level. What I didn’t consider is how mind maps can be used during collaborative group projects to encourage interactions between learners and aid these learners in critical thinking and creativity.
It’s surprising to me that I’ve overlooked the power of concept maps in recording initial ideas and then using this form of note taking to organize, identify connections and relationships, and improve communication between group members.
My curiousity about collaborative mind mapping sent me searching for a bit more information on the topic. During that search I discovered an article that compared image-based concept maps to text-based ones asking, “What are the differences between the character of image-based concept mapping and the character of text-based concept mapping?” It seems there’s much more to concept mapping than I had initially realized. Thanks to this week’s group for your presentation and for raising my awareness of the value of concept mapping as well as my level of interest in this topic.
Yen, J., Lee, C., Chen, I. (2011). The effects of image-based concept mapping on the learning outcomes and cognitive processes of mobile learners. British Journal of Educational Technology 43(2) pp. 307-320.
Posted in: Week 09: Visual-Intensive Learning
janetb 8:49 am on July 7, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Claire,
I agree! Although I have used mind maps quite a bit in class, I had used them in a fairly limited way. I had not even considered many of the uses presented to us this week, nor the variety of styles, interpretations and types of mind maps. This week’s presentation certainly gave me lots to think about.
Janet