Identify and describe 3-5 innovative ideas or ways you could use concept mapping activities in your future classrooms. Discuss how these ideas might impact your approach to teaching.
Concept mapping would be a great tool for helping students to compare and contrast ideas. Using a concept map, such as a Venn diagram, would help students to compare and contrast ideas in a very visual and easy to understand way. This concept map could be used on the computer using a program such as inspiration in which students could drag words or pictures to the different areas of the concept map. But it could also be used in a more motor oriented by creating a huge concept map for children to interact with through movement, for concepts like color or simpler more concrete ideas. Concept mapping could also be used to help children begin writing, as it could be a webbing activity for younger students (or older students) that helps them in the beginning process of thinking about what to write. But concept maping such as outlining could also be quite useful for many older students as it is a concrete way of laying out their papers in a good format. A third great way that concept mapping could be used in the classroom is for an activity in which the teacher determines what students know about a subject while planning future projects. Bu having children brainstorm things that they know about a topic, such as body parts, the teacher can determine what areas the students understand well, and what areas need to be improved. This is an invaluable tool for a teacher as it allows them to teach students new things, instead of telling them what they already know, or beginning a unit to learn that the students have no background knowledge to support it.
What impact might the use of Concept mapping software have on student learning within your classroom? Give 2 or 3 specific examples.
Concept mapping software would be quite useful, especially for younger grades and students with difficulty reading and writing, as it will say aloud the words that are written or the name of pictures placed on the screen. This software could help kids not only in beginning a writing project but also in learning how to read, as they can listen to the computer speak the words many times (this could also help students with difficulties in writing as the computer will say the word wrong when it is spelled incorrectly). This tool would also be great for use in the classroom because it is very interactive and allows the students to move, drag and rearrange the screen to fit their needs. Students could use pictures and words, could used premade concept maps or create their own. A third way in which this software is great, is that it allows students who are transitioning from writing simple stories using concept mapping tools such as webs to advance into more complex concept maps such as outlines that are often more helpful in essay writing.
Discuss the amount of time it may take to learn this type of application to the point where you would feel comfortable integrating it in your classroom. Do you think it would be worth the time? (you can be honest)
I think that the programs such as kidspiration are fairly simple to learn how to use. Although it may take an hour of playing around with it to become familiar with most of the features, I think it would be a great tool for kids to use because of its versatility and its interactive and entertaining nature. I feel it would be well worth the time, as kids love to use computers, and concept mapping would be much more fun on the computer than using a worksheet, which can get quite boring. This program also would be quite straight forward for students, so there would be few questions of what to do for the teacher to be distracted having to answer. Concept mapping software is definitely something that I would love to use in the classroom as a teacher.
Here is a concept map example:
Concept mapping would be a great tool for helping students to compare and contrast ideas. Using a concept map, such as a Venn diagram, would help students to compare and contrast ideas in a very visual and easy to understand way. This concept map could be used on the computer using a program such as inspiration in which students could drag words or pictures to the different areas of the concept map. But it could also be used in a more motor oriented by creating a huge concept map for children to interact with through movement, for concepts like color or simpler more concrete ideas. Concept mapping could also be used to help children begin writing, as it could be a webbing activity for younger students (or older students) that helps them in the beginning process of thinking about what to write. But concept maping such as outlining could also be quite useful for many older students as it is a concrete way of laying out their papers in a good format. A third great way that concept mapping could be used in the classroom is for an activity in which the teacher determines what students know about a subject while planning future projects. Bu having children brainstorm things that they know about a topic, such as body parts, the teacher can determine what areas the students understand well, and what areas need to be improved. This is an invaluable tool for a teacher as it allows them to teach students new things, instead of telling them what they already know, or beginning a unit to learn that the students have no background knowledge to support it.
What impact might the use of Concept mapping software have on student learning within your classroom? Give 2 or 3 specific examples.
Concept mapping software would be quite useful, especially for younger grades and students with difficulty reading and writing, as it will say aloud the words that are written or the name of pictures placed on the screen. This software could help kids not only in beginning a writing project but also in learning how to read, as they can listen to the computer speak the words many times (this could also help students with difficulties in writing as the computer will say the word wrong when it is spelled incorrectly). This tool would also be great for use in the classroom because it is very interactive and allows the students to move, drag and rearrange the screen to fit their needs. Students could use pictures and words, could used premade concept maps or create their own. A third way in which this software is great, is that it allows students who are transitioning from writing simple stories using concept mapping tools such as webs to advance into more complex concept maps such as outlines that are often more helpful in essay writing.
Discuss the amount of time it may take to learn this type of application to the point where you would feel comfortable integrating it in your classroom. Do you think it would be worth the time? (you can be honest)
I think that the programs such as kidspiration are fairly simple to learn how to use. Although it may take an hour of playing around with it to become familiar with most of the features, I think it would be a great tool for kids to use because of its versatility and its interactive and entertaining nature. I feel it would be well worth the time, as kids love to use computers, and concept mapping would be much more fun on the computer than using a worksheet, which can get quite boring. This program also would be quite straight forward for students, so there would be few questions of what to do for the teacher to be distracted having to answer. Concept mapping software is definitely something that I would love to use in the classroom as a teacher.
Here is a concept map example:
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