Visual Intensive Learning - Mind Mapping for K-12 Learning
This project is a requirement of ETEC 522, assignment 2. The main topic is the use of visuals in Educational Technology and their influence on the educational market. The research tackles the impact of the use of visuals on learners and educators alike. This reciprocal influence carries great weight in the world of ET. The article is written by five MET student-educators:
Danielle Boyd Hussain Luaibi Ping Zhang Sherman Lee Steve MacKenzie
This week's presentation is divided into three areas. Please click on the link to access each section:
- Wiki
- This page contains introductory information and picture version of all of our mind maps on mind mapping. As well as information on all of the activities for this week. Look through the wiki, watch the videos and read through the mind maps.
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To view a full screen version, click on the thumbnail of a mind map on this wiki page |
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The map displays again in a new page. Click on 'Full Resolution' to see the full size mind map |
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Hold "CTRL" and press "-" to zoom out and "+" to zoom in |
- As you peruse our maps, remember to reflect on the following:
- What makes a good mind map?
- How mind maps could be utilized in your classroom?
- What value online mind mapping applications have in the educational field?
- Or you can go to the source. Cacoo contains all of our interactive mind maps, as well as the collaborative mind mapping activity for this week. In order to access the maps in Cacoo and proceed to the activity (detailed below), click on the link and login as a guest. Notice that going into edit mode (at top right) allows you to zoom in and out of the maps.
- Are you having trouble using Cacoo, or need some more direction, go to our troubleshooting Google Doc. Ask us any general questions or report any issues you experience on Cacoo and Wiki. We will be checking the Google doc hourly so be sure to check back to see if we have answered your questions.
Introduction
Mind mapping might sound a hard process of yielding complex drawings or graphs. It is not so because it is simply transferring one's ideas and thoughts into visual figures that can be read and analyzed easily by the brain.The idea of mind mapping is not really new in our highly technical world. Mind maps were the first forms of communication when people met for the first time.It was the only and most successful form of conveying one's ideas.
Mind mapping has become of great importance in our modern age when educational institutes started to look at mind mapping as an effective learning factor. However, there is no specific time when mind mapping started.(Answers.com)
Tony Buzan who claimed he invented mind mapping believes that mind mapping activates the cerebration of the brain and improves one's note-taking skills.(Nerino J. Petro Jr.,2010)
What enhances mind mapping is the ability of creating or retaining the association among the main ideas of the mind mapping (metacafe.com).
Tony Buzan in his website goes beyond the idea of the note-taking skills by saying that mind mapping is a kind of intelligence booster (http://buzan.com.au/).
Big companies like Smarttech, which introduced the smartboard to the world of Educational Technology, has included the use of mind mapping in some of their applications and programs that are made for instructors in class (smarttech.com).
Mind mapping can be really used as a learning tool in class or at home for all people of all ages and professions.
How can we mind map? I am sure you are eager to know how that can be done. It is simple. It is a visual writing. The attached first clip shows Tony Buzan talking about the theory of mind mapping.
But let's see mind mapping and how it can be done in a simple practical way:
Learning Theory
Visual learning theory is rooted in the idea that visual learners understand, retain, and apply concepts, ideas, relationships, and words are represented vis a vis images. This was mostly studied by cognitive psychologists who reviewed how the brain processes information and in turn uses such to make changes and relationships among previously learned concepts and knowledge. It is in the connections made between ideas that educational psychologist David Ausubel deemed the most meaningful in education when compared to that of rote learning and low-level thinking and reasoning.
Although primarily a supporter of the constructivist ideology, Joseph Novak based the work of Ausubel, when he began working with the idea of creating a visual representation with nodes representing relationships in the 1970s out of Cornell University. These ideas formed the foundation of present day concept and mind mapping.
With the advance of technological tools within daily life and used to support educational initiatives, it is also important to view the process of concept mapping through that of a connectivist lens, the collaborative learning theory of the 21st century proposed by George Siemens and Stephen Downes. When learners have tools that enable them to access a great amount of information and data and represent relationships in a variety of means, it is important to reflect how such tools are supporting students.
Applications
Most of us have used mind maps in some form of another, whether brainstorming, taking notes or as part of a mind mapping project in school. But have you ever considered all the possible applications of mind maps and what importance they have in education? Or the role that technology plays in adding value to the mind mapping experience (or possibly subtracting value)? For insight into these areas, visit this mind map and explore the many educational possibilities open to educators in utilizing mind mapping activities.
Design Principles
There are a lot of different mind mapping tools on the market today, some of which are simple in design, and others are loaded with fancy gadgets. However, not all the bells and whistles are useful for implementation in a K-12 classroom. While some of these features are painful to be without. In this mind map, seven mind mapping tools are placed in accordance to their strongest affordance with regards to their support for collaboration, 3D graphics, assessment and facilitation. Do you spot any common pain points that you would definitely not want as a teacher implementing a mind mapping tool?
Future Growth
With the increasing adoption of mind mapping tools in both educational and professional fields, mind mapping ventures enjoy a very optimistic prospect of future growth. In this section, we'll lead you to explore eight directions that mind mapping might be developed into more exciting future forms, that are: (to be more) intelligent, visual-intensive, learning-support, platform-embedded, rich-hyperlinked, layer-hierarchy, in-cloud and realtime-colloaborative. Enjoy the exploration, you might find here an interesting point that you could develop in your own VIL venture.
Educational Venture Analysis
In this section you'll find an EVA for the mind mapping as a learning tool. By analysis of the pain point, solution, strategy, market and competition, you'll get deeper understanding of this emerging market. What's it asking? What's it challenging? What's it appealing to innovative entrepreneurs in the new era? You're welcome to add your opinions to this EVA. Let's think together to see clearer!
Activity for the Week
For this week's activity, you will continue your journey into mind mapping by constructing a mind map with your classmates based on the activity description in the 'Activity Description' mind map. After you have reviewed the instructions in the 'Activity Description' mind map, proceed to the 'Activity' tab in Cacoo and begin constructing your class' collaborative mind map.
By Friday, you will have gained experience with mind mapping and will have had enough time to develop a deeper understanding of the complexities of this educational venture. As a reflection post, please discuss what you think about the educational value of online mind mapping, where you see it going in the future (types of venture possibilities), does technology and online affordances increase these benefits or limitations and how might you use them with your students? Post your reflection in the ETEC 522 course page under Week 9.
Just some quick tips on navigating Cacoo:
- 1. In order to edit in Cacoo, you have to click the edit button at the top of the screen beside zoom and link. Once you are in the edit mode, there will be tabs along the bottom of the page that will take you to different maps pertaining to the sections in this week’s presentation. Along the top of the screen, is a navigation bar with the tools that you will need to create text and branching. If you have never created a mind map using software or don’t find the affordances user friendly, watch this video on how to use Cacoo (sorry there is no sound).
- 2. Don’t worry about saving Cacoo often, it does appear to automatically save your work. But just to be sure you don’t lose anything, log out properly by clicking the ‘x’ in the top right corner next to save in Cacoo window.
- 3. Please don’t change the maps except the ‘Activity’ Map marked Activity in the tabs which is designated for your co-construction. If you like an element in one of the other maps, feel free to select, copy and paste it into the Activity Map.
Market Research Based on Peers Discussions in ETEC 522
Most of our peers that participated in the above presentation agreed that online digital mind maps provided considerable educational value to any curriculum including uses as organizers, and for note taking, review and reflection within an easily shared and manipulated space. They preferred platforms that provided simple, user friendly affordances as well as more complex features. Although not all agreed that shared or collaborative mind maps were educationally valid [since mind mapping represents your mind’s organization], others believed that they provided opportunities for reflection on fellow peers perspectives and knowledge.
From a venture perspective, it appears that our peers prefer mind mapping tools that are commonly used within the Masters of Educational Technology program including Prezi, CMap, and Vue. Their preference for these tools may be based on exposure and familiarity suggesting that gaining a piece of the market may be partially dependent on selling these tools to universities that are training teachers.
Although an overexposed market, many identified the desire for features that enabled combining, comparing and analyzing maps. Since these features don’t presently exist in any useful form, a product that could offer these analytical affordances would save considerable time and effort for assessment and add greater educational value to mind mapping practices. A value added proposition may be to offer these analytics as a pay feature of a free product. Just to qualify this suggestion, some expressed concern that maps are difficult to assess as they embody personal knowledge representations. As a visual tool, many of our peers suggested increasing the visual value and offering features that enabled the inclusion of video, applets, and animations rather than just links. Other issues consisted of considerable lag time, conflicting shared editing, privacy, access to technology and viewing/ navigating large maps.
Overall, mind maps are considered a valuable educational tool with some considerable pain points that if addressed could offer valuable venture possibilities.
Activity Map Co-constructed by Peers during Week 9 of ETEC 522
References
About - Mind42. (n.d.). Mind42.com - About. Retrieved June 28, 2012, from http://mind42.com/about;jsessionid=0E7A1EE9D081601E3A6225660B213925
About - VisualRoot. (n.d.). VisualRoot.com - What the hell is visual root? Retrieved June 28, 2012, from http://visualroot.com/about.php
Buzan Centre Australia/NZ : Home of Mind Mapping, Speed Reading and Memory techniques. (n.d.). Buzan Centre Australia/NZ : Home of Mind Mapping, Speed Reading and Memory techniques. Retrieved June 28, 2012, from http://www.buzan.com.au/
Cañas, Hill, Carff, Suri, Lott, Eskridge, Gómez, Arroyo, & Carvajal (2004). CmapTools: A Knowledge Modeling and Sharing Environment. Retrieved from http://cmc.ihmc.us/papers/cmc2004-283.pdf
Coffey, J.W., Carnot, M.J., Feltovich, P.J., Fetovich,J., Hoffman, R.R., Canas, A.J., Novak, J.D. (2003). A summary of literature pertaining to the use of concept mapping techniques and technologies for education and performance support (Technical Report submitted to the Chief of Naval Education and Training), Pensacola, FL: IHMC – Institute for Human and Machine Cognition.
Collaborative Tools and Work Management Software | Mindjet: Turn Ideas Into Action. (n.d.). Collaborative Tools and Work Management Software | Mindjet: Turn Ideas Into Action. Retrieved June 23, 2012, from http://www.mindjet.com/
Home Page - 3D Topicscape. (n.d.). Topicscape.com - Info Center. Retrieved June 28, 2012, from http://www.topicscape.com/home.php
Inspiration Software, Inc. - The Leader in Visual Thinking and Learning | inspiration.com. (n.d.). Inspiration Software, Inc. - The Leader in Visual Thinking and Learning | inspiration.com. Retrieved June 12, 2012, from http://www.inspiration.com/
Main Page - FreeMind. (n.d.). FreeMind - free mind mapping software. Retrieved June 23, 2012, from http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
Main Page - Mind Genius. (n.d.). MindGenius - Mind Genius Uses. Retrieved June 27, 2012, from http://www.mindgenius.com/MindGenius-Uses.aspx
Main Page - Mind Matrix. (n.d.). Mind Matrix - What is the Mind Matrix. Retrieved June 26, 2012, from http://www.mind-matrix.org/public/whatis.adp
Maximatica. (2010, January 3). Cacoo Tutorial [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTijAOJYrsk.
Note Taking Using Mind Maps - Video. (n.d.). Metacafe - Online Video Entertainment - Free video clips for your enjoyment. Retrieved July 1, 2012, from http://www.metacafe.com/watch/2125900/note%5ftaking%5f
Petro, Nerino J. (2010). Hate taking notes? Try mind mapping. GP solo. 4,27, p.23.
TechBites. (2007, May 31). Bubbl.us Basics: Brainstorming and Mind-mapping Online - YouTube. YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. Retrieved June 24, 2012, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AllXU_3nktU
TheBrain. (n.d.). TheBrain - Know More. Retrieved June 27, 2012, from http://www.thebrain.com/products/thebrain/know-more-mind-map/
ThinkBuzan - Official Mind Mapping software by Tony Buzan. (n.d.). ThinkBuzan - Official Mind Mapping software by Tony Buzan. Retrieved June 18, 2012, from http://www.thinkbuzan.com/intl/?utm_nooverride=1&gclid=CNeBgKfi-bACFc7AKgodnxSizQ
SMART Exchange - USA - Search lessons by keyword. Lesson plans and resources for your SMART Board - SMART Exchange. Retrieved June 18, 2012, from http://exchange.smarttech.com/search.html?q=%22mind%20map%22