Concept-Mapping Tools

Inspiration and Kidspiration (www.inspiration.com/home.cfm) and The Graphic Organizer (http://www.graphic.org) are visual ways to think, write, and comprehend. Inspiration provides integrated diagramming and outlining environments that work together to help students comprehend concepts and information. Inspiration is visual thinking and learning in acts, and energize learning. Students use Kid-spiration (see Figure 2.4) and Inspiration (see Figure 2.5) to build graphic organizers by combining pictures, text, and spoken words to represent thoughts and information.

The Inspiration activity requires brainstorming, creating, planning, organizing, process designing, and understanding of how concepts relate to one another.

Inspiration  encourages:

  • Learning across the curriculum
  • Curriculum and technology integration
  • Brainstorming
  • Webbing
  • Process designing
  • Diagramming
  • Planning
  • Critical thinking
  • Concept mapping
  • Idea mapping
  • Drawing conclusions from information
  • Organizing thoughts
  • Outlining details
How Does This Look In The Classroom?

  1. Conduct a brainstorming session for a selected topic.
  2. Collect the ideas  generated.
  3. In Inspiration type in the symbol Selected topic.
  4. Click on Rapid fire and enter all the selected topic  ideas.
  5. Use the dragging function to match the related ideas.
  6. Select pictures of related topic from the Inspiration palette or videos from a video data- base.
  7. Now match the palettes to categories.
  8. Link the boxes with  arrows.

Questions

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