Bubbl-us

Week 4 Blog Entry

What is Bubbl.us?

It is a tool that helps you with the creation of a professional looking concept map.

What are concepts?

Marzano abd Pickering (1997) outline that concepts are single words or phrases that label entire classes or categories of persons, places, living and non-living thinngs, and events. An example of a concept is government.

What is a concept map?

A two dimensional diagram representing the abstract formation of subject matter (McInerney & McInerney, 2006).
The concept map is a graphic organiser which is designed to help organise information in a succinct and unambiguous way.
What is the educator's role in teaching this type of graphic organiser?

The educator has a crucial role to perform to explaining and teaching about concept mapping. One of the educator's role is to ensure that students are scaffolded to understand how a concept map is used to acquire specific knowledge. This is especially important if students have not any prior knowledge of concept mapping.

How are concept maps used?

Generally, concept maps are used to sequence abstracts in a hierarchal order, from the most specific to the most general. Marzano & Pickering (1997) suggest that if students are studying a concept, such as culture, the highest level of generality, this general information about culture will aid them to organise and therefore understand specific information about the cultures of many different countries.

Is the tool of value in the educational context?

There is great educational value and purpose of teaching students how to use a concept map. This tool is a fabulous visual representation of information and to acquiring specific knowledge about a topic. This form of representation allows students to see how notions are related by the linkage from one to the other.
Prior to this ICT tool teachers were drawing concept maps on the board or onto butcher's paper (and perhaps are still practising this method). Though with this tool it makes life easier and saves time which is a priority in the educational setting. An example of how this tool could be used is by projecting it on a white board and develop a concept map as a class on the topic of study.
This type of graphic organiser appeals and enhances learning of the visual learner. It may also help and engage the male student to visually see how abstracts are connected together.

What do the educational experts say about concept mapping?

McInerney and McInerney (2006) proposes that the concept mapping is a useful strategy to teaching students about abstracts. It also allows students to combine elements into meaningful statements or propositions. Therefore, by allowing students to see the relationships between concepts they are able to build upon their conceptual framework.

Thanks for visiting and reading about my progress report in my e-learning journey.

Rambling Rose.


References

McInerney, D.M., & McInerney, V. (2006). Educational psychology: Constructing
learning (4th ed.). Frenchs Forest, NSW: Pearson Education.

Marzano, R.J., & Pickering, D.J. (1997). Dimensions of learning: Teacher's manual
(2nd ed.). Auroroa, Colorado, McRel.