Mapping Understanding

Posted on August 7th, 2008 in Uncategorized by sarahpeacock  Tagged , , , , ,

I’ve been reading up on concept / mind mapping in the classroom and at the same time I’ve been experimenting with mapping myself.

Again, it’s one of the technologies that I’m really excited about. (I know it’s nothing new - I was doing ‘brainstorming’ on paper with students in the 90s - but I think the multimodality and potential for collaboration online afforded with new tools is)

I’ve looked at a range of web based mapping tools and found that (unfortunately despite my hopes) they didn’t always offer the flexibility I wanted - I wanted something that would offer unstructured semiotic (using symbols, colours, images) mapping (see Jewitt, Kress, Van Leeuwen) for formative assessment at the beginning of a topic to see HOW the children already understood a concept (note: not WHAT) and what prior knowledge and experiences or observations about the world they brought to the classroom.
However, I also wanted the tool to offer a more structured mapping layout for teaching purposes - hierarchical, relational with nodes linked (see Novak and Canas on structured concept maps).

I think Mind42 is great and Wisemapping has potential but on the downside they only seem to offer ‘mind mapping’ (Buzan style).
Offline, I really like Logotron’s ‘Thinking with Pictures’ as it seems to offer that flexibility - you can create either concept maps or mind maps and you can use images, sounds, hyperlinks.

How would I use it in the classroom?

I’d use it where appropriate for formative assessment, summative assessment, investigating and encouragng ‘What If?’ thinking and discussion and as a teaching tool.

Here’s an example:

KS2 Science Unit 3C
Characteristics of Materials

1.(Formative Assessment) Pupils to create a map (structure is their own choice) using images, sounds, words to show what they already understand around the topic ‘Materials around the Home’ Could provide pupils with cameras to take images to use in map.

2. (Teaching / Modelling Investigation and ‘Possibility Thinking’) Teacher uses a map to model how it can be used for investigative purposes - ‘What would be the best materials for keeping food cool on a picnic?’ Demonstrate interlinking nodes.

3. (Learning / Summative Assessment) In groups children investigate a range of materials / questions such as ‘What would be the best materials for my tea cosy?’ ‘What would be the best materials for a bridge?’. Use mapping to plan/ask questions/generate ‘what Ifs?’ and document findings.

4. (Summative assessment) Return to original map and add to it / change links / change layout to mirror new understanding. Could even construct a class knowledge map from individuals maps.

Materials Around the Home - Example of Formative Assessment using Mapping (Note use of different colours of text to denote cold, hard, hot, metal. I would have preferred to use no text at all but the software I used didn’t permit it)

Example of Teacher / Modelling Investigative Planning Map (Needs some work)


Making a broad generalisation (!) many people of my generation and older find mapping an odd concept and something awkward and counter intuitive (I know I did). I think this reflects the heavily language based / hierarchical nature of teaching and learning that we experienced. For example, I was taught how to note take only in sixth form and even then it was mostly long hand and sentence based. I can’t remember being taught how to represent my thinking on paper any other way.

Since discovering mapping it has really opened up new possibilities to me - I think things through in map form (you’ll see one such example attached) and plan in map form - for me it seems to assist the lateral, creative right brained way of thinking.

Here’s an example of how it has assisted me in thinking about mapping and noting my research.

Visualising Data in the Primary Classroom

Posted on July 28th, 2008 in Uncategorized by sarahpeacock  Tagged , , , , , , ,

I’ve been musing over the following question posed on the NAACE / MirandaNet Visual Learning course - Show how can the visualisation of data can be used in one aspect of the FS – KS2 curriculum?

Innovative Display Technology?

I think my first choice would have to be using the free ‘Create a Scape‘ from Futurelabs in Key Stage 1 Science ‘Living Things in the Environment’. Create a Scape is used to create a ‘media scape‘ for use on either a PC or Handheld device such as a PDA (personal digital assistant) or smart phone. Best used on a handheld device, a ‘media scape’ is essentially an interactive map that delivers multimedia to the user when they go to certain GPS hot spots created by the builder of the media scape. I would create a class media scape that included audio recorded by the children talking about the school grounds, video and digital images that they have collected in the local environment. This could then become a shared resource for the school and other classes could take the interactive tour and report back or add to it themselves, perhaps over different seasons.

Essentially the pupils would be capturing data about the local environment such as weather, types of plants, types of creatures and turning it into an interactive visual record.

Some other ideas..

Web 2.0

Web 2.0 has led to great development in web based applications that can be used for visualising data. My favourite has to be Google Earth (http://earth.google.com/) that while not strictly a wholly web based application (you need to download and install the ‘reader’) it utilises the web. The advantage of Google Earth is that it is free, it is versatile (it can be used across a variety of subjects - see - http://www.google.co.uk/schools/primary.html) Disadvantages of Google Earth are that it can be heavy on broadband demand meaning that a whole class of 30 pupils using it on school’s broadband may find it slow.

Another example I like of using Google’s web 2.0 tools is Tom Barrett’s work using Google Forms to create Emotion Graphs:

http://tbarrett.edublogs.org/2008/06/02/creating-an-emotion-graph-using-google-forms/

Finally, something that I think is truly innovative and exciting is how the following sites have used web 2.0 tools to visualise narratives.

While not strictly data, it is interesting to note how they have turned narrative into data - a bit like the lovely example given by Chris Stott ‘We Feel Fine’.

http://www.wetellstories.co.uk/

I particularly like ‘The 21 Steps’ by Chris Cummings a story told through Google Earth and ‘Slice’ by Toby Litt told through a blog. I could see primary pupils doing similar projects in Literacy.

Display Technologies in the Classroom

Posted on July 28th, 2008 in Uncategorized by sarahpeacock  Tagged , , , , , , ,

I’ve been thinking about the advantages and limitations of display technologies in the classroom as part of the NAACE and Mirandanet course.

Some questions I’ve been musing over:

  • What constitutes a display technology? Is it hardware or software or both? Is handheld technology display technology for 1:1 display?
  • Where is the line between display and interaction? An IWB is for display but users can interact with it.
  • Are some display technologies better suited to one learning context rather than another? For example, do IWBs encourage whole class didactic teaching rather than group based collaborative learning?

Interactive Whiteboards

There are a variety of interactive whiteboards or ‘IWBs’ available to schools, some of the most common (that I’ve come across anyway) being Promethean, Smartboards and ILS boards. The advantages of using an IWB (with projector) appear to be ease of use, integration of multimedia into presentations, easy creation of customised learning objects and ability to save annotations made during class time.

The use of Interactive Whiteboards that I have seen appears to split into different ’stages’ depending on the confidence and motivation of the user. Some users use them as presentation tools to project web pages, films or Power Point presentations. Some users move on to adding annotations to the board during a lesson and create flipcharts or notebooks with straightforward text and images. Some users advance to the stage where they create interactive exercises on the boards using resources within the software making use of objects and layers or using additional technologies such as handheld voting devices or multiple pens.

It is a relatively straightforward transition at first for user to switch from dry wipe board or projector to the first stages of use of an IWB because of the similarity of the look and feel of the technologies.

Some limitations of Interactive Whiteboards are cost - it is quite expensive to kit out an entire school with IWBs, price of repairs or maintenance, front projection boards can be obscured by users, fixed height boards can be set too high / too low for some users and free standing boards can cause problems, dropping connections to the computer when moved around.

Projector Only

A projector only set up is a more affordable option and offers some of the benefits of the IWB - ease of use, display of some multimedia (video, web) but also presents some limitations. The only interaction is between the user and the computer connected to the projector. Those watching the presentation can only see movement of the cursor on screen as the user interaction is somewhat obscured. A way around this is to use a wireless tablet device or wireless gyroscopic mouse that can be passed around the class easily for more involvement. The advantage of some of the IWB software such as Promethean’s ActivPrimary is that resources with multiple learning objects can be created and annotations in note form over pages saved. This is not so easy with a projector only set up.

Visualiser

When I first saw these at a Promethean conference a few years ago I wasn’t convinced as they were priced quite highly relative to what you could do with them. However, now I’ve heard so many teachers raving about how useful they are to explore small objects in an ad-hoc fashion in the classroom and turn a found object into an entire lesson or to share student’s written work with the class I must admit that I am converted. I guess that the price must have come down by now too - for example Interactive Education produce one called Genee Vision Mini for £495 and at the other end of the market Barking and Dagenham LEA use the Samsung 950 series which seems to come in around £2000. Advantages are that the device automatically adjusts the focus and the brightness, teachers can show small objects to the whole class at the same time,All books can be ‘big books’, and a demonstration of intricate skills or technique can be shared with a whole class. Again, the limitations are that it lends itself to whole class teaching led from ‘the front’.

Plasma Screens and Touch Screen

Large plasma screens are a great resource for a school to showcase their pupil’s multimedia work on - many schools now have them in their reception area.

For younger children and pupil’s with SEN, touch screens are a useful display technology as they negate the need for mouse input and are more intuitive (something I’ve found with my own 3 year old child who has taken to the iPhone’s touch screen like a duck to water!)

40 inch Magic Touch plasma or LCD add on kit £1335.00

Inclusive Education’s touch screen plasma

Inclusive Education’s flat screen LCD touch screen monitors more affordable at £399 per monitor

The limitations with touch screens are that they are more expensive than regular monitors and can be damaged. In the debate between plasma vs LCD, plasma was regarded historically as superior but the difference is now not so marked. Plasma is more expensive than LCD and some experts think LCD last longer.

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