Journal Entry 6 - Mapping Student Minds

I found the article “Mapping Student Minds” by Ariel Owen to be a very informative example of how to utilize technology in a classroom setting. The students in this class used both Palm Pilots and a casual mapping software on the internet to successfully learn about issues in ecology while simultaneously satisfying NETS-S 3 and NETS-T 2. I agree with the author that using the Palm Pilots in the field is very much more efficient (and costly!) than collecting data on paper and later entering it into an Excel spreadsheet. It also reduces the risk of data handing errors, as is stated in the passage. Casual mapping is similar to the Inspiration application which we learned about in this course. It provides a way for users to visually express relationships and cause-and-effect relationships. The casual mapping software appears to be easy enough to use for students that it doesn’t take away too much class time to learn. This, I believe, is a key factor in why teachers and students do not use technology as much as they should in the classroom. The training time involved takes away from the time learning the actual subject being taught in the course which my cause teachers to avoid technology in pursuit of lessons more easily fused into the curriculum.

Question 1: Why is casual mapping software great for in the classroom?

In the article, the author says that students should work in pairs when working with the software. This creates a dialog between the students requiring them to analyze others thoughts and take in their point of view before throwing down their ideas. In essence, it requires collaboration between students to form a common goal. In addition, as stated before, it is fairly straightforward to use, not requiring much training and thus can more easily be integrated into any lesson plan.

Question 2: What are some of the problems involved in casual mapping?

When using casual mapping, the problems arise among different age groups and skill levels. For example, a fifth grader who does not yet know how to fully convey their thoughts may create a spider web effect with their map, making it nearly impossible to understand. On the other hand, for a high school senior may have an abundance of information and throw it all down on the page, attempting to fit it all in the space they have been provided. The same blackout mapping effect will occur, just in a different setting. Students must be able to discern relevant from irrelevant information for use on their map.