Engaging Students with Concept Mapping Activities

Concept Mapping is a great organizational tool for you and for your students.

To the left is a concept map that demonstrates the possible uses of concept mapping in the classroom. I used the concept mapping software called, Kidspiration. It is a great program that would also be helpful in teaching literacy. Now, if I enjoyed myself so much, imagine the fun your students would have!

Concept mapping is a useful technique that improves note-taking skills. In my classroom, I might introduce concept mapping as a way for students to better structure their notes. With this more organized structure for note-taking, student learning will have more organization and will be more effective. More organized students make happier (and less stressed!) teachers.
I would also have the students use concept maps when they are beginning the writing process, before their first drafts. It is a great way to brainstorm and get their ideas laid-out in a prearranged way. When I was in school, we called concept maps “spider webs” and we would use them before we started writing anything! They let the child organize their thoughts and start arranging their concept map so that the important ideas can transfer easily into their writing. We could also use concept maps when discussing new concepts in the classroom. We would use the concept map to establish our students’ prior knowledge about the theory and connect those ideas to what we will be learning in the new lesson.
Concept mapping is useful in many situations, but how do we know when they are not necessary and might actually detract from a lesson? To answer that question, imagine a lesson you might teach. In this lesson, do you need to brainstorm with your students prior to beginning the lesson? If not, then there is no real need for a concept map. They may still be used by your students in note form, but it most likely wouldn’t be necessary for you to use it in a broader sense.

Blogs and Wikis in Education

1) Blogs are great for spreading innovative teaching ideas! They (blogs) and wikis can keep educators from across the globe in communication and extend new teaching concepts across those connections. They also facilitate more open communication between the teacher and the parent’s and guardians of their students.

Wikis promote collaborative learning as well as student engagement. Students can use blogs and wikis to work together in group projects, post homework, and other things online for all to access from within the wiki or blog.

One classroom I found used blogs/wikis as a student involved activity where the students were in charge of putting information out to the community about a topic that interests them.

2) I would probably use RSS readers/aggregators in a classroom to supervise my blogs and interesting news websites to better manage my time. They would be great to use if I had my students working on multiple blogs or wikis in the classroom and I needed to keep an eye on their daily progress.

3) There are many great things about the use of blogs and wikis in the classroom, but best of all is the communication it provides with student and student’s guardians. It is also a great learning opportunity for both students and teachers. They provide a great basis for the exchange of ideas. There are some downsides to having blogs and wikis in the classroom however. One problem with having them is that they assume that the students would have the previous knowledge needed to use the computer (and the internet for that matter) needed to make the websites. They also assume that the students have access to the internet or a computer in their home.

TeacherWeb Project Critique

TeacherWeb Project Critique

1) By using a classroom website such as TeacherWeb, teachers can better keep in touch with their students and their student’s guardians. This is a great way to have families stay focused and current on classroom information. I can imagine that most students would be excited to share any classroom information that is posted on the internet. In many cases, access to the internet at home is a special privilege for young children, so the chance to get on a student friendly website (including links to other fun informational websites) is an exciting one.
2) The biggest advantage of having a classroom website is the opportunity it creates for greater student family/teacher communication. Guardians can check in on their student’s grades, homework, and upcoming events. Overall, a website such as TeacherWeb can keep families in better contact with the classroom teacher. Another advantage of using a classroom website is the freedom that the internet allows. You can update the information at any time that an internet connection is available to keep your outgoing information current. At the same time though, trusting your students to have access to the internet may be a mistake. Making the assumption that all students have equal access is probably an incorrect one and must be taken into account before a teacher places too much of their classroom activities into the website.