Week 1

This is my first introduction to a Blog and to Inspiration 8.0. I have found that the class has moved too quickly for me, and I am not comfortable with the steps. Maybe having the steps in writing would have made it easier for us to follow, or alternatively going through the initial parts slowly, as many of us who were not familiar with these steps, were then lost for quite a period of time to follow.

I had been looking forward to the subject as I have a lot to learn and most importantly, want to learn. I really needed the steps broken down and then be given the opportunity of having a go, without being rushed to the next section - where I have again missed the vital aspects.

Today we started with a Concept Map in the program 'Inspiration 8.0'. I look forward to having a better play around with it. I was surprised at how you can get a great effect with only a few steps. A student would love to be able to make the visual connections, especially in the lower primary years, where their written work may not be strong.

I can see how I could use the Concept mapping in a classroom to connect a number of ideas across the curriculum, including literacy, science and humanities. Time can be set aside for the students to work on individual projects or as part of a comprehension exercise in a literacy block - for example with use of the 'listening post'


After having a familiarisation session, we then moved onto Mind Maps within the same program. I can see how links can be made for students to use it in the classroom. Greg suggested using it for tests for global regions and breaking off for countries and capital cities.
Another idea could be to connect the various science concepts. I came up with this for a recycling unit for Grades 3/4. There are a number of free mind mapping websites. These include http://www.bubbl.us/ , http://www.mindmeister.com/ and http://www.mindomo.com/ .

The 'Inspiration' website makes good connection between visual thinking being transferred to a written view with just a click of the 'outline view' button. This can be of benefit to help students start to order their thoughts. 'The White Paper', shows us the importance of children being able to compute all the information they are exposed to, and computer mind mapping software can be a perfect way for the children to make sense of all this information. Their research showed that in studies, the use of computer mind mapping lead to higher understanding and test results in both science and literacy activities. It is argued that visual learning can improve reading comprehension, thinking skills, student achievement and retention. Before I commence any assignment, I have always drawn my own map - although as mentioned in the readings - this can get messy and the links can appear less clear than when computer generated.

The ISTE report sets out the standards for North American teachers concerning IT, with some of these being: incorporation of digital tools in the classroom, the ability to model digital age work and learning and the importance of IT responsibility, including copyright. IT is an area that will require ongoing teacher PD as new programs are introduced and updated.