Whether we are searching for ideas for writing
assignments, projects or presentations, we often need a spark to
make ideas begin to flow. That's where idea maps come in. This
visual learning technique stimulates students to generate ideas,
follow them through and develop their thoughts
visually. A map is a graphic organiser for ideas,
concepts or geographical information.
Visual thinking can be expressed in many ways.
Graphic organizers are one way for visual thinkers to arrange their
ideas. There are unlimited ways to express these visual ideas.
Graphic organizers have many names including visual maps, mind
mapping, and visual organizers. Although many students plan with
paper and pencil, technology tools can be very helpful because they
allow easy editing.
Graphic organizers can be used in all phases of
learning from brainstorming ideas to presenting findings. They can
be used individually or in large groups. For example, some teachers
like to create a class concept map as a large group to review at
the end of a unit or develop a character map while reading a book
aloud to the class. These tools are particularly useful in
activities that require critical thinking skills.
Webs
Webs are visual maps that show how different
categories of information relate to one another. Webs provide
structure for ideas and facts and give students a flexible
framework for organizing and prioritizing information.
Typically, major topics or central concepts are at the centre of
the web. Links from the centre connect supporting details or ideas
with the core concept or topic.
Idea maps
Idea maps help us brainstorm, solve problems and
plan our work by connecting keywords, symbols, colours and graphics
to form nonlinear networks of potential ideas and thoughts
Concept maps:
- develop
an understanding of a body of knowledge.
- explore
new information and relationships.
- access
prior knowledge.
- gather
new knowledge and information.
- share
knowledge and information generated.
- design
structures or processes such as written documents, constructions,
web sites, web search, multimedia presentations.
- problem
solve options.
Topic maps
In general, the structural information conveyed
by topic maps includes:
(1) groupings of addressable information objects
around topics (occurrences), and
(2) relationships between topics
(associations).
A topic map defines a multidimensional topic
space -- a space in which the locations are topics, and in which
the distances between topics are measurable in terms of the number
of intervening topics which must be visited in order to get from
one topic to another, and the kinds of relationships that define
the path from one topic to another, if any, through the intervening
topics, if any.
Some critical questions in making maps are:
- what is
the central word, concept, research question or problem around
which to build the map?
- what are
the concepts, items, descriptive words or telling questions that
you can associate with the concept, topic, research question or
problem?
Mapping may be seen as a type of brainstorming.
Both Mapping and brainstorming may be used to encourage the
generation of new material, such as different interpretations and
viewpoints: however, Mapping relies less on intentionally random
input, whereas, during brainstorming, one may try to think up wild,
off-the-wall ideas and connections. Brainstorming attempts to
encourage highly divergent "lateral" thinking, whereas Mapping, by
its structure, provides opportunity for convergent thinking,
fitting ideas together, as well as thinking up new ideas, since it
requires all ideas to be connected to the centre, and possibly to
one another. Paradoxically, the results of brainstorming usually
appear on paper as lists or grids -- both unavoidably linear
structures: top to bottom, left to right. Mapping is less
constrictive -- no idea takes precedence arbitrarily (eg. by being
at the "top" of the list).
Some advantages of mapping are:
- it
clearly defines the central idea, by positioning it in the centre
of the page.
- it allows
you to indicate clearly the relative importance of each idea.
- it allows
you to figure out the links among the key ideas more easily. This
is particularly important for creative work such as essay
writing.
- it allows
you to see all your basic information on one page.
- as a
result of the above, and because each map will look different, it
makes recall and review more efficient.
- it allows
you to add in new information without messy scratching out or
squeezing in.
- it makes
it easier for you to see information in different ways, from
different viewpoints, because it does not lock it into specific
positions.
- it allows
you to see complex relationships among ideas, such as
self-perpetuating systems with feedback loops, rather than forcing
you to fit non- linear relationships to linear formats, before you
have finished thinking about them.
- it allows
you to see contradictions, paradoxes, and gaps in the material --
or in your own interpretation of it -- more easily, and in this way
provides a foundation for questioning, which in turn encourages
discovery and creativity.
With graphic organizers, you remove the words and
focus on the connections. Second, they are a flexible tool for
reviewing concepts and demonstrate understanding. Changes can
easily be made and take different perspectives to help
clarity thinking. Third, a huge amount of information can be
shared on a single picture to provide the "big view" of a topic.
Fourth, it's easy to edit, revise, and quickly add to a visual map.
Fifth, graphic organizers can be used as a planning tool from,
information identification to product development.
