Engaging Students with Concept Mapping Activities

A concept map is a wonderful tool for all learners, especially visual learners. It can represent the relationships among concepts in a variety of different ways and patterns that are easy to follow and see the connections. Concept maps can aid a student’s creativity and simulate brain-storming. It can help them summarize or analyze key ideas in an organized resource. Concept maps enhance instruction with the power of technology and visual learning.

Concept maps can be used efficiently in almost every subject area from language arts to math. Students could use this technology to compare books, analyze characters, study vocabulary, explore cause and effect, create cycles, explore theories, generate a study guide, and much more. Concept maps can also be used for teachers to plan and organize lessons, or even create a multimedia project or website.

While exploring Inspiration I found many ways to incorporate concept maps into my classroom. One example I really enjoyed was the lesson on recycling, students created a concept map exploring the three R’s of recycling including definitions, materials, impacts, and ways to recycle. Another idea I enjoyed was the concept map of plate tectonics, this is can be a difficult concept to grasp without visual examples. This concept map allows students to easily explore this science topic. My favorite idea to incorporate concept maps is the multimedia or web site diagrams. I think this is a wonderful way direct student to videos, photographs, and other fun web sites.



Concept mapping can enhance student learning it gives them a visual representation of information that may be easier to understand. Many students will benefit from well organized information that is easily to follow. Pictures and graphics to support material being learned will also help students grasp new ideas. Using concept mapping on computers will also motivate and be an exciting activity for students to complete.

I don’t think it would take me a lot of time to learn and feel comfortable with this type of application. However, I think it would depend on my schools technology program and access to determine if I would integrate it in to my classroom. If students had easy access to computers and we could quickly and efficiently use the program then I would use it in my classroom.

Here is an example of a concept map that I created in class.

Teacher Web Reflections

1. Describe how you see the use of a class web site could support your future teaching. Describe at least 3 ways how you see the use of a class web site could be used to support your future teaching. Provide specific details for each example.

There are multiple ways a class web site could support my future teaching. If I had a project or activity that I wanted my students to complete when we went to the computer lab, a class web site would be an easy homepage. I could use this to direct students to a certain page, as appose to having them type in multiple web addresses and search through pages. A class web site can be a wonderful communication tool for students, as I did in the teacher web, I could post announcements, reminders, homework assignments, grades, and other resources. This is an easy way to communicate with students in a fast, organized, and efficient way. A class web site can also be a great communication tool for a teacher to connect with parents. A parent can know what their child is doing and how they are doing in school. Parent involvement is a very important aspect of a child’s education. With a class website parents can easily ask questions, give feedback, and just stay informed.

2. Identify what you see as the top 2 ways students could use a class web site to enhance their learning and provide some justifications for your selections.

I think a class web site can enhance students learning by providing an easy to use and organized communication tool. If students have a resource to access they can improve their learning they can look up details they may have forgot about an assignment, view examples, find extra practice problems, ask the teacher a question if they are at home, or anything else a teacher want to put on the class web site. Another way I think a class web site could enhance students learning is by providing links to technology activities for learning, such as slideshows, educational games, and informational web sites.

3. Think about the page types and features of the Teacher Web system. What do you feel where the 2 strongest features or page types within the Teacher Web system? Why do you see these as the strongest?

I think the web resource page is a strong feature because I think students will get excited about these and enjoy them on their own time. At a young age most students enjoy using technology and the internet but they do not know where to always find fun kid friendly sites. This page will help students navigate safely to fun interactive web sites.
I also think the announcement page is a strong feature. This could be a very useful communication tool for both students and parents. A family could get in the habit of checking the announcement page every night and be prepared for the following day.

Blogs and Wikis in Education

Blogs and Wikis can be used in various ways within the classroom. Kids love to create real life publications and being the author of a custom design, blogs and wikis make this process easy and fast. Students learn in all different ways, blogs and wikis can provide the opportunity to integrate assorted multimedia applications. Video, slideshows, and online activities can be simple, daily resources for the classroom. Another way this theses technologies can be use in the classroom is to have students start blogging themselves, this can enhance communication and discussions. As a teacher blogs and wikis can also be very useful, you can post materials and resources for your students and parents, or even receive feedback on lesson plans from other educators.

RSS readers and aggregators can be used in a number of ways in the classroom. Blogs and websites contain content using RSS readers this allows readers to subscribe, collect, and read the content of the site through a tool called an aggregator, which allows for constant quick updates. A homepage portal is one example of these technologies, this would be great to use in a classroom with computers. You could set the homepage to contain certain facts or blogs that would act as a directory for students, for example a homepage could contain a classroom blog site, daily weather animations, and calendar reminders. Another way RSS readers and aggregators can be used by students is allowing them to create categories or folders for different course-related blogs in a reader, this will keep track of important materials in an easy way.

Blogs and wikis can be a great asset to a classroom. They are easy to use technology for both the teacher and the students. They allow students to interact with one another and have ownership over their thoughts and ideas. Blogs and wikis also create a new mode of submission that maybe easier and more exciting. However, these technologies also have challenges students or the teacher may have very little knowledge or experience with computers this could create a number of problem when using blogs, or wikis. The posting element of these applications could also create various challenges, such as the teacher having to keep up with new posts and the students posting on time and correctly. If the correct procedures are explain and practice is given with these technologies, then they can have many benefits for the classroom.