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.
