![]() ![]() ![]() Through chunking, a large or general concept is broken down into sub-concepts or categories, which can then be further broken down. Visual hierarchical maps are an excellent way to chunk content into a structured presentation.Ĭoncept maps are hierarchical visual maps that look somewhat similar to mind maps. Learning is enhanced through highlighting major concepts and “chunking” material into meaningful groups of content. * "Mind mapping" is the term used by English author and mind mapping expert Tony Buzan, as well by many others. Feel free to change your mind map, as you wish. Often you won’t get to the best idea until you try a lot of other ideas out. At some point in the process you may have an insight or a new sense of direction: a better way of organizing your thoughts, or what you want to express – what Rico calls a “trial web shift.” Through mind mapping, you can discover relationships between ideas, which is much of what creativity is all about – seeing relationships and patterns in new ways. In some mind mapping approaches it is not necessary to circle associated ideas you can just as easily write on the branches (see example above). These associated ideas can spawn additional ideas, until you have a web of branches of ideas that are all related back to the original idea. Then you think of associated ideas, circle them, and link them to the central idea. In Rico’s approach, you begin with an initial idea and draw a circle around it. In starting this process it is best to generate a lot of ideas and not worry about which are good or the best way to map them. Mind mapping (or what Rico calls "clustering")** is a good way to generate ideas. The two brainstorming approaches described below Mind mapping is useful for generating new ideas concept mapping is good for analyzing concepts. These correspond roughly to what have been called "right brain" (holistic, generative) thinking and "left brain" (analytical) thinking. Sign mind is the editor necessary for analyzing and sequencing the insights of the design mind. Design mind is key to creative insights and to finding patterns. It splits the world into clearly definable units and classifies them by giving them clear-cut definitions”Ĭreativity may be thought of as an interactive process between design and sign activities. Sign mind “is largely occupied with the rational, logical representation of reality and with parts and logical sequences… It acts as critic, sensor, and error-corrector.Design mind “constantly thinks in complex images it seeks patterns to make designs of whatever it encounters” and it “evokes emotion through its sensory images”. ![]() In her book Writing the Natural Way, Gabrielle Rico refers to “design mind” and “sign mind” as two ways of perceiving and thinking which complement each other: It may be useful to think in terms of two broad types: those primarily concerned with generating ideas and those primarily concerned with analyzing concepts. There are many ways to do visual brainstorming. Visual brainstorming tools are one approach. I found six different options that all worked well and met my criteria - below are the tools I tested, in order roughly from most simple to most sophisticated.Visual thinking includes working with images in our imagination as well as on paper or on the computer. I wanted to find options that had simple, intuitive controls, particularly for getting started quickly, but the free versions needed to be robust enough for students’ and instructors’ most common uses. The criteria that were most important to me as I tested the concept mapping tools were ease of use and free access. Kent State Center for Teaching & learning At its core, it is made of concepts that are connected together by lines (or arrows) that are labelled with the relationship between the concepts…Instead of reading explanations from students, concepts maps provide a way to quickly look through students thinking process and understanding of concepts. Today the focus is on tools and strategies that are adaptable to any mapping activity.Ī concept map is a visualization of knowledge that is organized by the relationships between the topics. Last semester I shared a specific strategy ( hexagonal thinking ) for helping students make connections between course concepts. I use mind maps with my students both to generate ideas (brainstorming as pre-writing) and to organize notes. Concept maps - or mind maps - can be a really useful way to organize information and quickly capture relationships. ![]()
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