I was inspired by the YouTube video that Brianna found about Tablet PCs and thought this week I would explore YouTube to see what sorts of concept mapping software videos were posted there. (Yes, I did get distracted on YouTube for a few minutes -- but quickly got myself back on track :) I found a few things which all looked very interesting...
PiCoMap is a software for Palm Pilots which is explained in this video (the video is just under 9 minutes long). At first, I wasn't really sure what the benefit would be to having students do the concept maps on Palms instead of desktops or laptops, but the "Gloved Palm Ladies" (as the narrators refer to themselves) point out a couple of good reasons for using the palms. I think the implicit assumption is that this would be used in a school in which students are assigned Palm Pilots and use them for a number of different applications. I liked the idea of having students do their concept maps on a Palm. For one thing, the students become familiar with a new technology (the Palm). The students don't have to worry about losing drafts (since the Palm saves automatically). Also, if the teacher had covered several new concepts in class and wanted the kids to add them to their concept maps, it seems like it would be easy to have the students pull out their Palms and spend 5 minutes updating their concept maps (if the students were using desktops, all of that 5 minutes would be wasted getting to the computer lab and logging in).
Another video (around 1 minute long) that I found that shows some neat concept mapping software is this one about Tabula Touch. I'm not sure about its application in school environments, but it sure looks cool (and perhaps would be really useful for ESL students or students with language disabilities?).
Happy viewing!
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2 comments:
Natalie,
This was an interesting video and a great way to show how PicoMap works on a Palm. This was a great way to visualize the development of a concept map using this tool.
I can see a use for creating concept maps on Palms in the K-12 environment. Palms would allow students to save their work and better individualize it, allowing them to view their work whenever and wherever they need to. I also liked the idea that was presented about having students use the Palm to brainstorm. This would allow students to do their own concept mapping rather than being led through the process by their teacher or other classmates.
I can see this technology catching on. It was helpful and interesting to watch concept mapping in action and I think it will have some useful applications for students, though I can still see it used more for teachers right now in their planning.
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