Concept Map

Concept maps are an excellent resource for students and teachers. When we were introduced this project, this was the first project I felt fairly confident about up front. Through-out my school years, I have built many concept maps for various subjects, but all have been on paper. Specifically, my Concept Map for 3125 Technology in the Classroom was built in lucidchart and is about Puritan Literature. As a future English teacher, I KNOW I will have my students form concept maps during class. It can be used as an excellent resource for them while studying. Also, it helps students make sense out of information I will be giving them, and can be used as a technique for note taking. Students learn in various ways. Some may like to type notes, form columns, use Venn Diagrams... etc. This is where the concept map can come in also. It can be used as another way to record classroom notes. However, there is one part of concept mapping that I found to be challenging. While making bubbles, we had to link each bubble with a verb. This fact really makes you think about what EXACT material you want included in your concept map. However, I think this will increase higher level thinking skills for my future students. They will not be able to just form bubbles and put words in them. They will actually have to think about WHAT they are putting in the bubbles, and HOW that information can be linked to other bubbles.
The concept map is part of the ISTE NET Standards Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity. According to this standard, teachers: "promote, support, and model creative and innovative thinking and inventiveness." When using a concept map, students facilitate their own learning. They will be able to come up with individual ideas, and use them to start projects. Also, as part of this standard, teachers," promote student promote student reflection using collaborative tools to reveal and clarify students' conceptual understanding and thinking, planning, and creative processes." By forming digital concept maps, a teacher will be able to tell how much his/her students know about a certain topic. This will be a great resource for me to use in my classroom.