vidmisha said:
Have you ever tried using concept mapping technique within a classroom? To what exent can this tool help in enhancing the higher order cognitive skills of learners?
I used a couple of months ago, when delivering a workshop on “Enhancing the reflexion part of the learning cycle” (from Kolb). What i did was ask the participants what their experiences were regarding the topic and built in real time a mindmap (concept map) based on their comments and feedback. Since the map was projected on the whiteboard through a screen projector, all the participants could see and comment on the map as branches and ideas were typed.
It was a very effective way to summarize their opinions and experiences, and helped them clarify what they said and meant to say, and then allowed for a very natural deepening of the conversation on the aspects of their experiencies that neeeded more “polishing”, and then the inclusion of the proposals i had to offer. I can post the result in a separate lesson or whatever if you will, but it’s in Spanish currently. (This was in Bolivia)
Just thought you might be interested in this simple software application – called Compendium – that has been developed to visualize ‘dialogues’ – not quite sure how dialogues relate to conversations about concepts but the principle of using display and recording software to track conversations and information flow is the same I think.
Here is the link: http://compendium.open.ac.uk/institute/about.htm