ETEC 522 – May 2012

Mind Maps

HI there. Sorry about the late post, but I’ve been away all week in Vegas…

I’ve been using mind maps in the classroom for as long as I can recall. I find them a very useful activity at a variety of points along the learning process. I’ve used them to activate prior knowledge, to acquire information (especially during a reading activity) and to illustrate acquired knowledge or to apply a new concept. I’ve not really thought about doing this beyond pencil and paper because the access to computers in our school is very limited. Many of the tools and sites may or may not be accessible in our school board. They seem to block everything. We can’t even get on Youtube and students don’t even have access to email! Anyway, in theory, the use of these applications would be awesome if available to me in my school. Some students have accessed a variety of mind mapping tools in the past and presented a print out of their work to me; I was impressed with their outside the box thinking (i.e. using something other than what I provide).

I think good mind maps have some sort of logical organization. They use colours, shapes and/or lines to illustrate relationships and thought processes. I also think that mind maps are highly personal in nature and that assessing them might be a bit problematic. Since there are so many ways to interpret them, self-assessment against a rubric or checklist or check-bric might be the best option. Developing these assessment tools with the students might also increase student success.

Anyway, the long and short of it, mind maps are great tools and I hope that I will be able to use some of these exciting web based tools in the future.