Resources for Graphic Organizers, Concept Maps, and Mind Maps

We are learning to use graphic organizers in a class I am teaching this semester. I'm sharing with the students (social studies majors) a list of resources for those new to graphic organizers, concept maps, and mind maps. The academic discipline used for most examples in this list is social studies. Another post later in this blog will share resources from additional disciplines.

Teachers and Their PLNs

Inspiration software provides a good introduction to using graphic organizers including concept maps, mind maps, and webs.

http://www.inspiration.com/visual-learning

Visual Thinking and Visual Learning

overview, introduction

This site has links to graphic organizers, concept maps, mind maps, and webs

http://www.inspiration.com/inspiration-socialstudies-examples

graphic organizers, mind maps, concept maps samples

Social Studies Examples for Inspiration Software

Educational Technology and Mobile Learning has published a list of resources and of additional tools to use.

http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2012/06/teachers-guide-on-use-of-graphic.html

graphic organizers and overview list

Teachers Guide on the Use of Graphic Organizers in the Classroom

Ways to Use a SMART Board

Several sites share mind maps, their history, and samples.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_map

mind maps introduction

Mind Map

http://www.mindmappingsite.com/history/history/history-of-mind-mapping

mind maps introduction

History of Mind Mapping

http://www.tonybuzan.com/about/mind-mapping/

mind maps introduction

What is a Mind Map?

http://teachinghistory.org/digital-classroom/tech-for-teachers/24177

mind maps introduction

Mind Mapping: Visualizing Historical Thought

http://www.biggerplate.com/education-mindmaps/34/history

mind maps samples

History Mind Maps

Tools for Teachers

A variety of introductions, resources, and samples are available for concept maps.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concept_map

concept maps introduction

Concept Map

http://www.education.com/reference/article/concept-maps/

concept maps introduction

Concept Maps

https://wiki.ubc.ca/Concept_Mapping_Resources

concept maps introduction

Concept Mapping Resources

http://www.wcer.wisc.edu/archive/cl1/flag/cat/conmap/conmap7.htm

concept maps introduction

Classroom Assessment Techniques Concept Mapping

http://alphahistory.com/frenchrevolution/french-revolution-concept-maps/

concept maps samples

French Revolution Concept Maps

Graphic Organizers Display / Katie Appleton Day / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

The term “graphic organizer” is sometimes used to discuss just one type of graphic organizer… and other times it is used to include graphic organizers, mind maps, concept maps, and webs.

http://www.uwstout.edu/soe/profdev/50-uses-inspiration-and-kidspiration-software-tools.cfm

graphic organizers introduction, samples, rubrics

50 Uses of Graphic Organizers and Rubric

Teacher-Created Graphic Organizers

Rubric for Graphic Organizers

http://michelleleba.wikispaces.com/file/view/Social+Studies+Graphic+Organizers.pdf

graphic organizers introduction and samples

Social Studies - Graphic Organizers & Mini-Lessons

https://walch.com/samplepages/050078.pdf

graphic organizers introduction and samples

Content-Area Graphic Organizers - Social Studies

http://www.ncpublicschools.org/docs/acre/standards/support-tools/organizers/social/k12-social.pdf

graphic organizers introduction and samples

Graphic Organizers

http://guamjfk.weebly.com/uploads/1/0/3/7/10376068/social_studies_toolkit_gos.pdf

graphic organizers introduction and samples

Social Science Toolkit of Graphic Organizers

http://www.teach-nology.com/worksheets/graphic/

graphic organizers samples

Graphic Organizers

Pinterest Swag / Julochka / CC BY-NC 2.0

Pinterest is by its very nature a visual tool. So it’s a great place to look for other visual tools.

http://www.pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=graphic%20organizers

graphic organizers resources

http://www.pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=mind%20maps

mind maps resources

http://www.pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=concept%20maps

concept maps resources

http://www.pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=social%20studies

social studies resources

http://www.pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=history%20education

history resources

Note: The samples used in this post were created by Jo Schiffbauer with Inspiration software that is designed to be used for visual mapping, outlining, writing, and making presentations. The license on the diagrams is CC BY-NC 3.0 (a Creative Commons license).

Using Storify to Share How Educators are Teaching with Inspiration Software

Storify is an application that helps you share stories, videos, and images on the web.

I am tweaking an online course that I will soon teach to pre-service educators. I used Twitter and the web to help me find ways that teachers are currently using Inspiration software. Storify helped me quickly put together a list of those uses that I can embed (or provide a link to view) on my blog and/or post on the online course's website. The uses in the Storify list include articles, videos (Vine and YouTube), and images from tweets and websites.

When I first read about Storify I appreciated the technology that enables it to work, but I did not see any reason to use it myself. What changed my mind? Quick access to current information for my students. I do not want to provide "old" information for my students. Storify helps me keep my lessons timely.

Would you like to try Storify? Here's a video tutorial that will help you learn how: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luZcU2E5cgI

The link and the embed follow.

Link: http://storify.com/schiffbauer/using-inspiration

Embed:

Becoming a Technology-Literate Teacher

This snapshot of an Inspiration diagram has gone through several versions and multiple purposes. The current version (TLT 2013.isf) attempts to describe the knowledge, skills, and habits of a technology-literate teacher. I prepared the diagram with my pre-service teacher education students in mind.

The main idea (Technology-Literate Teacher) can be clicked to hear a spoken comment about PLNs and being a lifelong learner. The main idea also has a note that lists the components of the diagram.

The lead symbol in each section (Professional Development, Hardware, Software, Network, Social Media, and Technology Integration) provides a note with a summary of information about that topic.

At least one of the symbols in each section is linked to a website. Some of the websites include videos.

• PLN: http://www.teachingvillage.org/2012/01/03/what-is-a-pln-anyway/ 
• Mobile: http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2013/01/the-best-8-tablets-for-teachers.html
• Applications / Apps: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Application_software
• LAN: http://www.networking-basics.com/lans-and-wans
• Digital Citizenship: http://www.edutopia.org/blog/film-festival-digital-citizenship
• SAMR Model: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=us0w823KY0g
• Technology Integration Matrix: http://fcit.usf.edu/matrix/matrix.php
• Technology-Literate Teacher: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHelzy1shAA

The Graphics Credit symbol provides the attribution for copyrighted graphics in the diagram that are not part of the Inspiration application.

What changes would you make?

Building Your Personal Learning Network (PLN)

One of the best features of teaching is that every school year has a FIRST DAY. A new beginning. It's always exciting to think about what I'm going to do differently this year to help my students learn how to teach others. Two years from now my students will be planning THEIR first days for their students!

I believe that one of the best changes since my first day in my own classroom is that teachers no longer go into their classrooms, close the doors, and teach on their own islands. Today we communicate with each other. We collaborate on what works, what doesn't, and how we can do it—whatever it is—differently... and better. And our students benefit from our communicating and collaborating with each other.

One of the topics that my students and I will explore this semester is our Personal Learning Networks (PLNs). I've been putting together some ideas about PLNs. What would you add to this diagram that I created using Inspiration?

First Steps in the Twitter World

My students are learning to use Inspiration software. Sometimes they have questions about the software and sometimes their questions concern my expectations. Twitter is quick and easy to use for both our questions and the responses. We will evaluate the use of Twitter as a communication tool between teacher and students when we finish our Inspiration unit.

Roobee (Roba Al-Assi) / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

I have used Twitter off and on for a couple years. It seemed that it could be helpful, but I wasn't impressed enough to stick with it. Until now. One of us--either Twitter or myself--has grown enough that it's looking like a more useful tool for education. More useful, in fact, than the limited purposes that my students and I are using it for in our current experiment.

I've been expanding the list of folks that I follow. I follow Obama and Romney since it's election season. I have recently added Edgar Allen Poe and George Washington. I want to add Carl Sandberg and Abraham Lincoln, but haven't decided yet which versions of those two to follow. Just think of the class lessons that could develop from following those four guys. (Hmm... I need to add one--or two--female historical figures.) I have followed Vicki Davis (@coolcatteacher) for quite a while (she's one of my heroes in instructional technology) and just recently added another instructional technology hero, Scott McLeod (@mcleod). I don't want my list to become overwhelming, but I have discovered that the professional development available from following folks on Twitter can be almost as excellent as what can be gained from following folks on their blogs. (I haven't posted my blogroll to this blog yet, but I will.) The professional development aspect of Twitter was a surprise!

I want a quick look at how other teachers are using Twitter, so I plan to explore Twitter4Teachers, a wiki created by Gina Hartman (@ghartman). She created the wiki to help educators connect with other educators on Twitter. I discovered the Twitter4Teachers wiki when I searched TeachersFirst for their collection of Twitter tools and techniques.

TeachersFirst also led me to The 2012 A-Z List Of Educational Twitter Hashtags. I had not used hashtags previous to the experiment this semester with my students. We have a hashtag that we use on all tweets that relate to our class. That keeps us organized and we don't lose any comments. I knew that we needed a hashtag, but I did not know how large the world of hashtags is! It's another way to connect with others--even folks you don't know yet--that have the same interests. For example, if I have time Tuesday evening I plan to join in a conversation on the #edchat hashtag. This site lists more than 300 hashtags. Let's see... If I check out one new hashtag per week, that will take me about 6 years to get through the list. Oh. My. Gosh. This same web site (The 2012 A-Z List Of Educational Twitter Hashtags) has an embedded Google Docs presentation of ways to use Twitter in the classroom. You can add it to your own Google Docs.

By the way, I am using TeachersFirst to find my way through the Twitter world because of my respect for the quality, practicality, and thoroughness of their research. If they are not one of your favorite web sites, I urge you to go to http://teachersfirst.com/ to check out what is available at their web site.

Links in this post:

Scott McLeod http://www.dangerouslyirrelevant.org (@mcleod)
Gina Hartman http://www.ginahartman.com/ (@ghartman)
Google Docs http://docs.google.com/
Inspiration http://www.inspiration.com/
TeachersFirst http://teachersfirst.com/
The 2012 A-Z List Of Educational Twitter Hashtags http://edudemic.com/2012/06/2012-twitter-hashtags/
Twitter http://twitter.com/
Twitter4Teachers http://twitter4teachers.pbworks.com/
Vicki Davis http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com (@coolcatteacher)