This post will explore the usefulness of concept maps (or mind maps) and their use in an educational setting.
Tony Buzan (2007) defines a mind map as a ‘thinking tool that reflects externally what goes on inside your head’. By creating mind maps students have the opportunity to organise and chunk information in a ways that reflect the brain schema and thus promote information transfer to long term memory. When explaining how the structure of mind maps assist cognition, Tony Buzan (2007) states ‘The reason why traditional note taking in lists and lines doesn’t work is because it doesn’t have the associations. If you don’t have the associations you don’t have connection, and if you don’t have connection, you don’t have memory and you don’t have thinking’. I certainly find this to ring true as I am personally a BIG ‘mind mapper’. For every assignment I start I go through what I call the ‘culminating stage’ where I do all the suggested readings and I pick out relevant points and appropriate information and place them on a big mind map poster that I stick to the wall behind my computer. Then when I have all the information organised I am able to start the writing process. So based on my own experiences as well as what contemporary Cognitivist learning theory suggests I believe that mind maps hold a very important place in the educational ICT toolbox and will definitely use them with students to help them to organise and make sense of information.
The concept map I previously posted to this blog was created by the online tool Bubbl.us which I found was quite easy to use. Another similar tool is Text2mindmap. Both of these online concept mapping tools would be suitable for independent use by middle primary aged students and up or used with assistance from the learning manager for the early primary students.
Buzan, T. (2007). Maximise the power of your brain. Retrieved July 9th, 2010 from http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/resource/view.php?id=91792
You have put a lot of thought and effort into this tool. Good use of personal examples, I never thought that someone could be so organised with collecting and organising information, good job, hahaha. Using references also contributed nicely to your post.
ReplyDeleteHi Hannah
ReplyDeletePrior to this course I didn't know about any of the theory behind concept maps, I just did them intuitively to make sense of a lot of information, then when I was researching for this post I was like HEY! thats why concept maps are working for me? Have you found them useful? Can u think of any ways they would be of benefit to you HPE class?