Adventures in Mind Mapping!
Great job with mind-mapping week 9!
Like others, I have not ever really thought of mind-mapping as a teaching tool, but more of an assessment/review tool. Having used VUE many times in the MET program, I have learned that mind-mapping is a very versatile way of giving visual representation to thoughts and processes. And, the “thinking about thinking” or meta-cognition aspect really does help to extend your thinking and give opportunity for reflection. I wonder about using it as a group/collaborative activity however – I have never mind-mapped in collaboration! To me, mind-mapping is VERY personal, and I can’t help but think that having others alter my map, or add to it would make me uncomfortable – especially if their learning was radically different from mine.
As an elementary teacher (Gr. 6), I have introduced concept mapping in a simplified way using SpiderScribe. Using my Smart-board, I have taken a concept (e.g. photosynthesis) and mapped the various components/aspects. (But, I have always done this as a teacher-led activity and have never asked the students to create one on their own or as a small group – maybe next year?) I have seen a lot of benefit in this activity at this level, as the more visual learners were able to make the connections much more easily.
I have never heard of Cacoo before, and for a free application it certainly does have merit. For my elementary students it would be too advanced, have a little too much of a learning curve, and the lag time would certainly cause them to lose interest. However, it is something that I could see myself using!
Smiles, Kimberlee
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Sherman Lee 9:04 am on July 7, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Thank you, Kimberlee. I am glad that you experienced collaborative mind mapping as something new 🙂 From a teacher’s point of view, I do share a similar concern towards mind map. Before I started researching into this project, I have always thought that mind mapping was a very personal exercise, because I have always been asked to do this individually in school. I have done a little bit of this exercise with various groups in academic, professional and personal project, but it was something that was more drawn by one person while the rest dictates. One underlying puzzle that I had was that I wonder how ‘messy’ and confusing it would be to have too many hands in a pot; the amount of time to simply get used to the changes people had made is huge, due to different communication style and visualization.
Flipping the conversation on its head, let’s take a look at this from a more business perspective. If the “messiness” in a collaborative mind map is a concern, what could potentially address this pain point to elevate a tool to a functional level in terms of facilitating or even encouraging a group collaboration on a mind map? What might make you, as a grade 6 teacher, buy into this idea?
Sherman