12th April 2006

Thinking and communicating visually

posted in creativity, design, edtech, open source |

Cheryl Oakes commented about the SmartTech software program SmartIdeas recently. Here is an example of a product made with SmartIdeas. SmartIdeas looks very similar to Inspiration and the free, open source graphic organizer software CMapTools. My main question about these tools is, what differentiates them from similar graphic organizer software programs?

I posted about concept mapping software back in February, and that post has a variety of other links too including several contributed by others in post comments. Joel Barker’s Implications Wheel software is an interesting take on concept mapping that I learned about this week. It is not clear to me how you download it or buy it, however, his site appears to just have online, read-only examples posted.

I think it is great there are different tools out there for creating concept maps. As Cheryl wrote, “young children think in images” and we need to encourage them to have CONVERSATIONS based on visual text as well as traditional written text. I question whether or not schools need commercial variants of concept mapping tools, however, or whether open-source options like CMapTools should be favored. This rationale could be based not only on cost (CMapTools is free) but also on collaborative sharing capabilities. Being able to post and share student work, as Cheryl has done wonderfully using an Adobe Web Photo Gallery (created with PhotoShop I suspect) is something we need more teachers and students doing. Web 2.0 tools can facilitate online sharing, and concept mapping software like CMapTools can as well. I guess what we need someone to create is an entirely browser-based concept mapping read/write web tool, using AJAX and the latest web development techniques. What a great project idea for an educational technology group like UVA’s Center for Technology and Teacher Education or North Texas’ CECS! :-)
I like using Inspiration personally for concept mapping during workshops, but I need to branch out and use other tools so I’ll have more experiences with them. CMapTools, the times I have used it, has not struck me as being as user-friendly and intuitive as Inspiration, but that may be because I’ve been to several workshops about Inspiration and never been to one where CMapTools is demoed and explained.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 12th, 2006 at 8:36 am and is filed under creativity, design, edtech, open source. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

There are currently 2 responses to “Thinking and communicating visually”

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  1. 1 On April 12th, 2006, Cheryl Oakes said:

    Hi, the smart ideas is an online collaborative graphic interface. It is in beta design, but to me the implications are huge. I was using the interface with folks from Australia, Vancouver, New Hampshire and Michigan one night. The new web 2.0 tools are still in the process stage, the sky is the limit, we need to be open about how to and where to be using these tools.
    Cheryl
    I see huge implications for states implementing 1-1 computing with certain grade levels. What a great opportunity to be able to have a whole grade level of students communicating about issues with the lastest technology, and for the visual thinkers, an online graphic organizer with many options like adding music, photos and text instantly! Check out SmartIdeas.

  2. 2 On January 26th, 2007, tina helen said:

    This was a great assignment. It was very challenging on many levels, including the fact that the readings contained a some interesting statistics.


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