This week we were encouraged to look at any tool that we use and unpack it. A list of nine optional activities were provided. I chose concept maps from this list.
The two examples that we were given were bubbl.us and text2mindmap. I had previously used both of these programs to develop a concept map for a novel for year 6 students, however I opted to us a downloaded program. For this week's task, I chose to unpack bubbl.us.
bubbl.us is an easy program to use. You can create concept maps with relative ease. The first few screens are easy to navigate, and there is plenty of online support for how to use the program through places such as YouTube.
To start, click on "Start Brainstorming". This will take you to a new concept map that looks like this:
It is now as simple as clicking "Start Here" to write what the main topic is going to be. Once happy with your topic, you get two options from each box- to add a "child" box, which is linked to the "parent" box; or start an unlinked concept.
Here is an example using healthy food as the main topic. This is a simple concept map with the topic, categories coming off the parent box, and three examples of each category. This has been developed for my year one class that I will have for my first Embedded Professional Learning (EPL) placement.
As I have designed this for year one students, I want to make it as easy to read as possible. bubbl.us offers the option to change the text colours and the box colours. As this is for year one students, I changed the category colours to provide better differentiation.
This took about 10 minutes to create and is a way that you can use concept maps for brainstorming. If I were to use this activity in my year 1 classroom, I would get the students to respond with all the different examples they could think of for each of the categories. Some would be small, such as the dairy one, but others quite large ie fruit and vegetables.
A new feature that I found was the ability to "connect" concepts together and show the relationship between them. Below is a concept map for the book "Other Brother" which shows a few of the characters from the novel and the relationships that are identifiable from reading (French, S. 2012).
This map shows a few things. The two main characters are "Kieran" and "Bon", who I highlighted in red to stand out. "Renee" and "Mum" are biological connections, so I made them both green. "Max" and "Julia" are friends of the main characters within the novel so I made them blue.
Through creating a number of separate boxes, I was able to connect the two boxes together and type any information that was appropriate. As per this concept map, I outlined biological connections, as well as emotional connections between the main characters and the friends.
While some of the connections in the picture above may not be accurate, it does allow you to choose if you want a one-way arrow, such as that between "Max" and "Bon" which reflects Max bullying Bon, or a two-way arrow between "Bon" and "Kieran" showing that they are cousins.
The use of concept maps is not a new phenomenon, and would therefore be classed as Substitution. It is taking an action that many people have done by hand and making it electronic. I would, however, argue that there is a touch of Augmentation as well due to the fact that while you can easily draw a concept map on paper, the added features of quick colour coding and ability to move boxes to suit needs provides a better way of doing this exercise. I believe that the collaborative approach by both on paper and electronic versions does not change that much.
And now, for a concept map showing the relationship between Bloom's Taxonomy and SAMR (Schrock, 2014).
I have provided above two different ways to demonstrate the use of this program within classrooms. There are a number of other ways that you could use the program such as for visual presentations of an essay and the arguments that the student will use; showing a path of decisions and outcomes; showing relationships; demonstrating similarities/differences through listing of characteristics etc.
Overall, it is an easy program to use that can be adapted to fit classrooms replacing the hand-written concept maps with increased flexibility.
French, S. (2012). Other Brother. Australia: Walker Books Australia.
Schrock, K. (2014). Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything. Retrieved from http://www.schrockguide.net/samr.html.
The two examples that we were given were bubbl.us and text2mindmap. I had previously used both of these programs to develop a concept map for a novel for year 6 students, however I opted to us a downloaded program. For this week's task, I chose to unpack bubbl.us.
Creation of concept map through bubbl.us
bubbl.us is an easy program to use. You can create concept maps with relative ease. The first few screens are easy to navigate, and there is plenty of online support for how to use the program through places such as YouTube.
To start, click on "Start Brainstorming". This will take you to a new concept map that looks like this:
It is now as simple as clicking "Start Here" to write what the main topic is going to be. Once happy with your topic, you get two options from each box- to add a "child" box, which is linked to the "parent" box; or start an unlinked concept.
Here is an example using healthy food as the main topic. This is a simple concept map with the topic, categories coming off the parent box, and three examples of each category. This has been developed for my year one class that I will have for my first Embedded Professional Learning (EPL) placement.
As I have designed this for year one students, I want to make it as easy to read as possible. bubbl.us offers the option to change the text colours and the box colours. As this is for year one students, I changed the category colours to provide better differentiation.
This took about 10 minutes to create and is a way that you can use concept maps for brainstorming. If I were to use this activity in my year 1 classroom, I would get the students to respond with all the different examples they could think of for each of the categories. Some would be small, such as the dairy one, but others quite large ie fruit and vegetables.
A new feature that I found was the ability to "connect" concepts together and show the relationship between them. Below is a concept map for the book "Other Brother" which shows a few of the characters from the novel and the relationships that are identifiable from reading (French, S. 2012).
This map shows a few things. The two main characters are "Kieran" and "Bon", who I highlighted in red to stand out. "Renee" and "Mum" are biological connections, so I made them both green. "Max" and "Julia" are friends of the main characters within the novel so I made them blue.
Through creating a number of separate boxes, I was able to connect the two boxes together and type any information that was appropriate. As per this concept map, I outlined biological connections, as well as emotional connections between the main characters and the friends.
While some of the connections in the picture above may not be accurate, it does allow you to choose if you want a one-way arrow, such as that between "Max" and "Bon" which reflects Max bullying Bon, or a two-way arrow between "Bon" and "Kieran" showing that they are cousins.
Use of bubbl.us
The use of concept maps is not a new phenomenon, and would therefore be classed as Substitution. It is taking an action that many people have done by hand and making it electronic. I would, however, argue that there is a touch of Augmentation as well due to the fact that while you can easily draw a concept map on paper, the added features of quick colour coding and ability to move boxes to suit needs provides a better way of doing this exercise. I believe that the collaborative approach by both on paper and electronic versions does not change that much.
And now, for a concept map showing the relationship between Bloom's Taxonomy and SAMR (Schrock, 2014).
I have provided above two different ways to demonstrate the use of this program within classrooms. There are a number of other ways that you could use the program such as for visual presentations of an essay and the arguments that the student will use; showing a path of decisions and outcomes; showing relationships; demonstrating similarities/differences through listing of characteristics etc.
Overall, it is an easy program to use that can be adapted to fit classrooms replacing the hand-written concept maps with increased flexibility.
Reference List
French, S. (2012). Other Brother. Australia: Walker Books Australia.
Schrock, K. (2014). Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything. Retrieved from http://www.schrockguide.net/samr.html.
Great post Melissa
ReplyDeleteLoved the sequencing of your visuals. Excellent evidence of investigating and evaluating this ICT tool.