This week as part of our assignment we were given the task of comparing and contrasting three web based advanced organizer applications. I chose to look at bubbl.us, Webspiration and Mindmeister. All three applications are online tools that are capable of creating concept maps.
I found bubbl.us extremely easy to use: I was able to jump right in and start an organizer with very little effort or time invested in learning how to use the tool. I can see bubbl.us being leveraged in a classroom situation where a teacher might want to start mapping a concept out "on the fly." Bubbl.us did not have much to help someone looking for ideas to get started--you essentially begin with a blank slate containing one button that says "click here to start." It's pretty basic in terms of the graphics from what I could tell, but it certainly gets the job done in a quick and easy fashion.
Webspiration is an online application that has a lot to offer. There are a wide variety of tools, templates, and graphics available in the free version; which was surprising to me. I found this application to be a little less user-friendly than bubbl.us in the sense that I would definitely have to invest some time to learn how to create my own graphic organizers. I really like the fact that Webspiration has an extensive library of templates and see that as a true value-add when it comes to using this application.
Mindmeister.com was the third application I checked out and while it essentially offers what the other two applications offer, the look and feel is completely different. It has more of a "tree" look and contains buttons that can expand or collapse a list, much like a directory in Windows Explorer. The webs created in Mindmeister can become quite intricate, yet by using the expand/collapse buttons the presenter can direct an audience's focus to a particular detail. Of all three online applications, this seemed to be the most cutting-edge and interactive. I look forward to investigating Mindmeister further.
Reflections:
Cues, Questions and Advanced Organizers:
I believe the use of an advanced organizer can help guide an instructor through the process of effective questioning and prompting through the use of cues. Using something as simple as a KWL chart can effectively set the course for learning a new concept in most any subject area: The teacher will be able to identify through the use of this advanced organizer what the students know, which will help guide the process of providing cues that trigger students’ memories; as well as learn what the students want to learn in order to pose questions that keep them interested and engaged in the lesson.
Nonlinguistic Representation:
Nonlinguistic representations are mental images and physical sensations that can attach meaning to new ideas or concepts. I think the evolution of technology has helped to facilitate more nonlinguistic representation of new content into the classroom. Today it is relatively easy, provided the tools and accessibility, to conduct a google search on any given topic and come up with an image or sound to help reinforce learning. Teachers can attach clip art to vocabulary lists, or pull up a Discovery Ed video to demonstrate what life is like in another part of the world. Bringing nonlinguistic representation into lessons provides a rich experience from which students will be able to attach some meaning of their own.
Summarizing and Note taking:
In my experience, summarizing and note taking is something that hasn’t been explicitly taught, yet expected to happen with success as students move on to middle and high school level. Summarizing reminds me of the dreaded story problems in math: you need to delete some information to really get to the heart of the question. Summarizing also requires you to analyze a selection and determine what stays, what goes and how to put it in your own words. Note taking is also the ability to filter out what is important and what is secondary in the material / information presented. Both require time invested in learning the strategy in order to become successful. I believe that through teacher modeling, frameworks and examples, and opportunities for practice with feedback can lay the foundation for effective summarizing and note taking skills.
In a true case of great minds think alike, I looked at the same three concept mapping tools you did and independently came to the same conclusions; Bubble.us was easy to use and had some nice features, Webspiration seemd more feature-rich but will likely take a greater investment of time to learn how to use and MindMeister has the most potential for my use and is something I would like to investigate further (in my spare time lol).
ReplyDeleteIn terms of the Learning Strategies, I am struggling a bit with how they might be applied outside the classroom. I'm wondering if you had any thoughts on that as one of the other non-classroom teachers in the cohort.
Sue, Ditto on the Mindmeister and Webspiration. I really liked what Webspiration had to offer and I found that the results seemed more fun than the mindmeister output. I didn't check out the Bubble.us as one of my three but, based on your comparison to Webspiration I think I'll give it a look and see what I think. Great post!
ReplyDeleteChris,
ReplyDeleteIn response to yuor question about how to apply the learning strategies outside of the classroom, it is a bit of a leap going from using it with school aged students to adults but I find that I've been using many of these strategies without even realizing it.
I use the questioning and cues as a way to facilitate discussions among my staff members: It's easy to assume that because a topic was discussed 6 months ago that people should "know it." I don't put up a KWL chart, but my questions are often framed in that same way.
I also create training documentation for new employees as well as for additional professional development purposes, which is where the use of non-linguistic representation and summarizing comes in handy. In the past, our training documentation was very wordy and had very little visual support. Over the years, I've converted and reorganized the information into charts, and bulleted lists of key points with screenshots to support ideas as well. I've found those updated resources to be more effective, but I continue to re-evaluate and implement improvements as I learn new techniques.