Collaborative idea maps are similar to document sharing because one can collaborate on idea maps with other students. These idea maps can be used for free on various sites: www.bubbl.us; www.freemind.com; mindmiester.com (used by one educator for his physics students); www.managemyideas.com; and www.kayuda.com. Traditionally, students created idea/mind maps on paper, making circles and writing in their ideas. This is a solitary process and not very practical if one doesn’t know exactly where the ideas are going. This results in lots of drafts that end up in the trash. With these online idea maps, students can move their ideas around and graphically see where they want to position their ideas without trashing their drafts, resembling how Inspiration and Kidspiration function. The most exciting part of these idea maps is the collaborative aspect of the software. Students can share their work with other students they select to share with, similar to Google Docs.
The forums in Classroom 2.0 – Collaborative Idea Maps discuss idea maps and how the educators participating in the discussion use them in their classroom. The discussion thread begins with how one educator uses www.bubbl.us in his classroom to get students to collaborate on research paper ideas. Others in the discussion asked questions about specific use and specific classroom applications; others offer different sites that offer distinct applications for different disciplines: math, science, etc.
I think this is a great way of interacting with students. It makes students more involved in the learning process. They are placed in the “driver’s” seat and may feel more excited about learning and more willing to participate. A couple of the members in the discussion forum feel that this collaborative process allows for more differentiated instruction. They didn’t explicitly state this, but their use of www.bubbl.us allowed lower performing students to gain much needed confidence and early on successes with collaboration. I believe these collaborative tools will help students engage the learning, giving them the security to succeed without the pressure to perform in front of a whole class.
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3 comments:
This seems like a really great tool for the classroom. I think that it's great that students can collaborate on these idea maps, especially in the case of preparing for research papers. Since all students would have access to contribute to the idea map students would be exposed to a variety of ideas regarding a single topic.
This is a great tool to show students! I feel that this is a wonderful tool to get students to brainstorm their work and share their ideas with one another without feeling pressure.
After using Wikispaces and Googledocs in the education classes, I really like the experiece of students working together using idea maps. Creating projects in teams really teaches students the art of working together that will be necessary in our global world today and in the future.
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