Iconic memory is the mind’s ability to retain cognitive material when it is laid out by way of visual cues. Finally, maps also serve retention and processing by way of something called iconic memory enhancement and also, possibly, by dual coding. Concept maps also assist greatly in reducing cognitive load: with all the ideas, relationships, and propositions laid out on one page (instead of being embedded in paragraphs of prose), limited memory resources are freed up for more productive work. In short, this is the kind of thing that promotes deep learning as opposed to surface learning. When students can readily see all the ideas and relationships in a system, they can more easily understand them, relate them to each other, modify or revise them, and also remember them. Ĭoncept maps (and the other mapping tools we shall talk about below) work because they make a set of ideas and relationships visible or explicit. Finally, Ausubel also said that we learn best when we think of ideas embedded in their total context: the general ones on the same page as the specific ones. Learning, Ausubel also said, occurs best when it is tied into what is already known. The process of making these distinctions makes each of the concepts richer, or more integrative, as each concept now becomes more precise. Under this theory, learning is defined as the attaching of concepts we currently grasp to new concepts in a process of differentiation and reconciliation: in the process, people see how the new concepts are both different from and at the same time related to other concepts. In developing CmapTools, Novak and Cañas drew upon psychologist David Ausubel and his assimilation theory of learning. There is also a learning curve for understanding the concept map theory more on that below. The software itself, thus, possesses a narrow learning curve. Any Cmap can also instantly be converted to a web page, for viewing by those who do not have CmapTools installed, or for displaying the Cmap on one’s own website. Permissions are granted through a very easy to use parameter screen. Users can save their Cmap’s locally, and also upload them to Cmap servers, where other users throughout the world can see them as well as modify them, if appropriate permissions have been granted. It also is embedded in a rather substantial network infrastructure. Most computers running today would meet its hardware requirements. A concept map then is meant to display in an easy to read format a comprehensive list of the ideas and relations between them that define the content of a certain issue or question.ĬmapTools is open source software that can be freely downloaded and installed for the PC, MAC, Linux, and Solaris. Each node or box can also have a link attached to it that takes one to examples or further detail on that concept (e.g., a website, a video or video, another concept map). The map also is supposed to start with a focus question that can be defined when the map is saved. The map is also arranged hierarchically, with more general concepts at the top and moving downwards to more specific ones. With CmapTools, one draws boxes representing concepts or ideas and lines that connect two or more boxes the lines have a word at their center that explain the relationship between the concepts. They wanted a more precise way to capture how children’s conceptual understanding in the sciences developed.Ī Concept Map on Concept Maps, courtesy of IHMC see live map here The Mars Map, courtesy of NASA The Concept Map called CmapTools ĬmapTools is a concept map developed by researchers Joseph Novak at Cornell and Alberto Cañas at the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition. The focus in this Wiki will be on the educational use of digital concepts maps. Today, digital concept mapping has found a significant home in K-12 education as well as in higher education. One such concept map was the extensive Mars mission map, created by NASA as an educational and PR tool. Concept maps date as far back as the 1950’s when businesses and government would draw them on large sheets of paper as a way of isolating all the individual components of a system or project. Concept maps have been used both in business and education to focus on the discrete elements of a project or workflow, to demonstrate the interconnections of complex arguments, and to assist in the teaching of virtually any subject matter. Introduction and History Ī concept map is a drawing or diagram that employs boxes to represent concepts and lines to show links between the concepts.
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