This YouTube video has been a popular one with my classmates, including Mandy who thinks mind maps are a useful tool for assessment. I really like the part in this video where students are asked to add something to the mind map silently - this is a great way to engage those broody kids in the back row! How much better to do this online, so that students can collaborate with students in another class, another school, or potentially from across the world!

Flickr Photo from Scott Beale “Laughing Sqid”

Made available under Creative Commons 2.0 Attribution Licence: http://creativecommons.org/

I agree with my colleagues Tania and Maria that Papert’s article on constructionism (based on a video presentation) makes some serious points on the use of ICT in the classroom. It’s not about how we can teach differently, but how children can learn differently.

Papert goes on to explain instructionism as the use of ICT to teach, in other words computer-aided instruction. This can be a great classroom strategy, but it’s not the same as Constructionism, which Papert cleverly describes as “Giving children good things to do so that they can learn by doing much better than they could before.”

I think many classroom teachers get instructionism and constructionism muddled up! They think using a PowerPoint makes them a digitally advanced teacher, when really, unless it’s the students composing the slides, it is still just boring (slightly enhanced) direct instruction!

Maria’s point about using podcasting, videocasting, blogging, concept mapping and wiki’s in Commerce, Business Studies and Economics is very relevant. There are so many opportunities for students to use these tools in a creative way that makes the material they are learning come to life. After watching a student- produced video in our lecture today, I can imagine students taking a camera home and asking their parents, their neighbour and their dog why they thought the interest rates were cut yesterday and what the implications would be. Suddenly, through constructionism, as Chris point out in his blog,  learning becomes meaningful for students.

Source: Papert, S. (1980). Constructionism vs. Instructionism. Retrieved 27^th October 2008 from, http://www.papert.org/articles/const_inst/const_inst1.html

I created this mind map to help my students study for a marketing test. I am hoping it will help them to have a better overview, or helicopter view, of the course and how it all fits together! I used bubbl.us and it was really quick and easy to use. I am sure this will engage my students more than a boring page of black print!

Matthew Kearney’s recent post features a mind map by Jim Nuttle which is a visual representation of some of the topics we have been discussing at uni. I was fascinated to look at this representation of Key Emerging Technologies and realise that only a few short months ago I had barely heard of some on these terms! Some areas, like vuvox, are still a bit of a mystery to me, and I can see that as an educator I will need to work really hard to stay up to date on these emerging technologies!

This YouTube Video by Tony Buzan made me really think about how the construction of colouful and oraganic concept maps really helps the learning process. He talks about how many famous thinkers, such as Darwin and Beethoven, used visual cues to aid their memory. I am currently studying for exams and I realise how the way you draw these maps can really aid in memory recall. Watch and enjoy!

This week I have been thinking about the point of Mindtools – why use a Mindtool (which I have found now from fiddling with cmap to be quite tricky), when you could achieve the same outcome with a notepad and a good texta?!

To look deeper, I’ve been reading an article by Jonassen, Carr and Yueh (1998) entitled Computers as Mindtools for Engaging Learners in Critical Thinking. It talks about the fact that Mindtools allow students to construct and organise their personal knowledge. I know that as a student myself, constantly learning new information, I sometimes feel that my mind is swimming with ideas which are not usually terribly organised. Confusion results!

Essentially a mindtool is a type of scaffold which allows students to see the relationships between their ideas and the new concepts they are learning and at the same time, engage in critical thinking.

Programs such as SemNet, Learning Tool, Inspiration, Mind Mapper and many other are now freely available on the net and enable learners to interrelate the ideas that they are studying in multidimensional networks of concepts and  to label and describe the nature of the relationships between all of the ideas in the network. Embedding information into mind maps in the form of hypermedia really opens up the possibilities, so we are going past what could ever be done with a texta and a writing pad!

I think the best thing about mindtools is that they are dynamic and can be added to , by the learner, or potentially by the whole class, whole school or whole on-line community. It is possible that global links with other schools could be used to give students a truly international perspective. For example, a teacher or student in England could embed a copy of a newspaper article into a class mindmap on Global Business. This possibility shows that mindtools can truly open up an exciting new world of collaborative learning!

This week I have been immersing myself in concept maps, and this article by Joesph Novak and Alberto Canas with the long title …The Theory Underlying Concept Maps and How to Construct and Use Them has really made me think about how concept maps can help in the classroom.

Using concept maps makes sense when you think about them in relation to constructivism. By constructing their own concept map students are essentially showing that they understand the concepts well enough to see how they all fit together.

Novak & Canas (2008) comment, ‘Many students have difficulty identifying important concepts. ..they fail to construct frameworks, lending them to see learning as a blur of myriad facts, dates, names, equations (etc)… Unsuccessful students can become successful, acquiring a feeling of control over the subject matter.’ They suggest the use of expert concept maps for complex topics, or for students who are struggling to create their own concept maps.

I like the idea of attaching resources through links to the concept map. Students can easily see a visual representation of a lesson they may have had, eg an embedded advertisement for a topic on promotion, and instantly recall the subject matter.

Novac & Canas also suggest using concept maps for testing students, and I must say this sounds tricky to me. I am not convinced that this would work as well as other forms of testing.

It was mentioned in a uni lecture that the slow adoption of ICT into Australian schools is partly because most teachers are “middle-aged women who are not interested in technology”. That hurt….not that I am calling myself middle-aged! But I am interested in technology and would have thought my female students would be just as interested as their male colleagues!

An article in the journal Educational Computing (2006, Vol. 20, no.2) entitled ‘The digital divide: Are our girls falling through the gap?’ by Jennifer Lane discusses the adoption of digital technology by females. Is there a stereotype that says computers are essentially a boy (read computer geeks!) domain, and that really feminine girls do not spend their time investigating cutting edge technology?

Lane (2006) argues that the gap has evolved because girls spend less time on computer games and playstations. This is probably because most games are designed by males, for males. Lane also discusses the fact that most girls learn more readily with auditory language based methods. It could be that ICT lessons do not promote this style of learning, which could be influencing the level of engagement of female students with technology.

The point that stands out for me in Lane’s paper is this one: we are not providing our girls with role models in the area of technology, in fact most ICT teachers are male. Lane mentions the importance of considering a female perspective when buying software, designing content, selecting tasks and using case studies.

So there’s the challenge girls – let’s be enthusiastic and informed ICT users and break down this old fashioned digital stereotype! And guys – remember that girls love computers too, especially as gifts!

As a result of an excellent presentation at uni today by Hilary Hughes from the Centre for Learning Innovation, I have discovered an excellent Business Studies resource. The information is presented in a case study format, and when you touch the underlined words with the mouse , the definition pops up automatically. I think this would make it much easy to teach the key terms, as students can see the words in context.This information can be used on an interactive white board to prompt class interaction. Podcasts on different topics would be great for students to listen to in class or as part of a homework exercise.

Hilary made some relevant points about the use of interactive white boards. Her research has shown that:

• Boys participate more in these lessons, and are willing to get up in front of the class
• Teachers find they plan their lessons more, but preparation time is shorter
• The academic results improve because students are more engaged
• Real life examples can be used on the spot with access to the internet
• There is quicker progress through the syllabus
• Student behaviour improves (this was reported by the students themselves
• Teachers are more motivated because they enjoy seeing the students making progress.

A journal article by our lecturer Matthew Kearney and Sandy Schuck in Australian Educational Computing (Vol.23, no.1 2008) also reflects the positive attitudes of both students and staff to this relatively new technology. I will definitely be looking into the use of this some more!