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Introduction to Concept Mapping Used as a learning and teaching technique, concept mapping visually illustrates the relationships between concepts and ideas. Often represented in circles or boxes, concepts are linked by words and phrases that explain the connection between the ideas, helping students organize and structure their thoughts to further understand information and discover new relationships. Most concept maps represent a hierarchical structure, with the overall, broad concept first with connected sub-topics, more specific concepts, following. Concept Map Example Definition of a Concept Map A concept map is a type of graphic organizer used to help students organize and represent knowledge of a subject. Concept maps begin with a main idea (or concept) and then branch out to show how that main idea can be broken down into specific topics. Benefits of Concept Mapping Concept mapping serves several purposes for learners: Helping students brainstorm and generate new ideas Encouraging students to discover new concepts and the propositions that connect them Allowing students to more clearly communicate ideas, thoughts and information Helping students integrate new concepts with older concepts Enabling students to gain enhanced knowledge of any topic and evaluate the information How to Build a Concept Map Concept maps are typically hierarchical, with the subordinate concepts stemming from the main concept or idea. This type of graphic organizer however, always allows change and new concepts to be added. The Rubber Sheet Analogy states that concept positions on a map can continuously change, while always maintaining the same relationship with the other ideas on the map. Start with a main idea, topic, or issue to focus on. A helpful way to determine the context of your concept map is to choose a focus question-something that needs to be solved or a conclusion that needs to be reached. Once a topic or question is

The history of teaching is littered with ideas that have come and gone. In their day each was the new bright hope, set to transform what we do as teachers and how our students learn. Each new idea had its supporters and detractors and each in turn was replaced by an alternative or simply disappeared from view. Those who have experienced this ebb and flow of ideas have learned to approach the shiny and the new with caution and yet we have all encountered ideas that are so compelling it is difficult to ignore. How might we approach new ideas and innovative practices in ways that ensure our students benefit?

Sydney has become a beacon that brings people together and sparks conversations. Most recently the conversation centred on the topic of girls in tech and what might be done to re-dress the gender balance in STEAM subjects and related career pathways. Sponsored by INTEL this Vivid Ideas event drew a mix of entrepreneurs, educators and tech luminaries to the Museum of Contemporary Art on a Saturday afternoon to share their ideas on what might be done.

There are some ideas which seem to translate nicely into fields of thought far from their point of origin. These are  ideas which shine a metaphorical light on concepts and allow us to develop a deeper understanding of that concept once we see it from a fresh perspective. Schrödinger's Cat is one such idea.

We have some strange ideas about intelligence, many of them are wrong. Some of our ideas can have a damaging effect on the people we label as intelligent. When we look at some of the research behind intelligence we find that our assumptions based on what we were once told about it need to be updated. 

Some statements stand out in your memory for the power with which they resonate through you mind. I recall the first time I encountered the question posed by Alan November "Who owns the learning?" on the cover of his book of the same name. In four words, Alan poses a question that strikes at the heart of education and encourages us to re-think our approach. If we believe that the learner should own the learning, what are the implications of this for our teaching? Like a stone dropped on the surface of a calm pond, the ripples from a powerful idea spread, expand and gain strength. 

"In our survey, we asked teachers to tell us about resources that they found on twitter which they then implemented in the classroom. Here are 25 of the most commonly shared ideas"

Twitter is a great place for educators to share ideas. It has become my go to place when I am looking for something to read, a new idea or some inspiration. It is a great avenue for sharing practice, asking questions and building a community.    But . . .   . . . Twitter has some problems and these seems to be growing. To get the most out of Twitter a degree of caution is advised.

A common challenge for students and teachers is how to develop a great idea for a piece of writing. Too often students struggle with the process of finding inspiration for their writing. They have a vague idea for the story they hope to tell, but all too quickly it transforms into a list of events with little or no detail. The goal here is to provide our students with a process to use during the planning process. The hope is that by identifying the type of thinking required during the early phases of ideation and to focus their attention on details, that the stories our students subsequently compose will be more enjoyable to read. Hopefully, this process helps.

I would like to propose that one cause of curriculum overcrowding is a phenomenon I refer to as "Idea Creep".

EduTech in Sydney has been a remarkable experience. A grand celebration of education and an energising gathering of educators ready to share stories and make connections. Despite the rainy weather some 8000 educators came together in the inspiring new International Convention Centre at Darling Harbour and left two days later with hers full of new ideas and wonderings of what might be the future of education. With many ideas still bubbling away here is a brief list of the key take-aways.

Spin-off from the Facebook group with the same name which some teachers created last year. Most of us are teachers at Escuelas Oficiales de Idiomas, and we like to share ideas, links and debate in Facebook, but we thought that all these posts would be better organized if we had a group so they wouldn't be lost among other entries in our personal Facebook wall. When the group started to grow (there are 92 of us already), we realized that we were missing some kind of categorization, so we thought a blog would do the trick. And here we are. We choose the ideas that are more popular among the posts in our group in Facebook and write a post here.

I'm a so-so fan of Skype. I've used it on an infrequent basis and have had more than a few dropped calls. Audio and video alike. However, it's a cheap way to make long distance calls and seems to work better over wi-fi and the video quality is improving on a regular basis. So therefore it's probably a great tool for the classroom. But how can you use Skype to do more than just make calls? Well, there's a pantload of interesting ways! Check out these fun ideas: Collaborate! Meet with other classrooms: One of the most common projects educators utilize Skype for is setting up exchanges with classrooms around the world, usually for cultural exchange purposes or working together on a common assignment. The program's official site provides some great opportunities to meet up with like-minded teachers and students sharing the same goals. Practice a foreign language: Connect with individual learners or classrooms hailing from a different native tongue can use a Skype collaboration to sharpen grammar and pronunciation skills through conversation. Peace One Day: Far beyond classroom collaborations, the Peace One Day initiative teamed up with Skype itself and educators across the globe to teach kids about the importance of ending violence, war, and other social ills. Around the World with 80 Schools: This challenge asks participating schools to hook up with 80 worldwide and report back what all they've learned about other cultures and languages. Talk about the weather: One popular Skype project sees participants from different regions make note of the weather patterns for a specified period of time, with students comparing and contrasting the results. Collaborative poetry: In this assignment, connected classrooms pen poetic pieces together and share them via video conferencing. Practice interviews: The education system frequently receives criticism for its failure to prepare students for the real world, but using Skype to help them run through mock-up

In this article, Michelle Everson summarized her attempt to use small-group discussion assignments in an online introductory statistics course. She have found that these assignments can be successful, and they can lead to opportunities for students to reason more about statistical concepts and help each other learn important course material. When using such assignments, we would encourage instructors to (1) create assignments that do not have just one "right" answer so that students have ample opportunities to discuss different ideas and respond to what their group members post, (2) allow several days for students to work on the assignment, (3) provide students with clear guidelines for every assignment so they know exactly what they need to do as a group, (4) provide incentives for students to post not only their own thoughts, but respond to what their group members have said, and (5) provide students with examples of what it means to reflectively respond to their peers. Most of all, we would encourage instructors to make their presence known to the discussion group during every discussion. Assure students that you will be there in order to make sure everyone is on the right track, and take whatever opportunity you can to cheer the group on, highlight important ideas that different members of the group have posted, and question the group in order to get them to think more critically about the material.

This is an amazing illustration of Sir Kenneth Robinson's presentation on schooling in the 21st century.  It's fascinating to watch an illustrator create a visual map of Robinson's ideas as they are spoken.  The content of the presentation is enormously important to any educator struggling to change the system.  It's even more important to those who've been subdued and mislead by old ideas into thinking they can't learn or create.

This is a great idea for a collaborative project - collecting games to play at primary school. Email your own game ideas and browse the activities already submitted. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Cross+Curricular

This free eBook, Updated eLearning Trends in 2019 - Packed with Ideas You Can Use to Enhance Your Learning Strategy, provides an analysis and mid-year updates on the current eLearning Trends and is packed with ideas and tips that you can use.

Design thinking is an act of creative problem-solving. Design thinking has a human-centred core. It uplift organizations to focus on the targeted audience, which conducts better products, services, and internal processes. While creating a solution for a business need the first question must be what's the human need behind that? The six phases of a design process: Six Steps of a design thinking process Six Steps of a design thinking process Observation: This phase is about noticing the end-user, learning, and being unlocked to creative possibilities. Here the goal is to understand the target audiences Ideation: In this phase, you start analyzing ideas with your team based on what you gathered from phase Rapid prototyping: Here you are going to rapidly put up a simple prototype of your plan. This builds it real and provides you with something to try out with the end-user. The aim of this phase is not to generate the perfect solution but to make sure the solution is on target User feedback: This is the censorious phase where without input from the end-user, you won't know if your solution is on target or not, and you won't know how to evolve your design Iteration: Once the feedback is received from the end-user, you can proceed with the changes of your design using that information. Keep repeating, testing, and combining user feedback until you've adjusted your solution Implementation: Here you have confirmed the functionality of your solution with the end-user and acquired your design just right, now it's time to get your ideas into functionality IDEO design thinking process: IDEO (https://designthinking.ideo.com/) developed a unique process which came to be known as IDEO design-thinking frame-work. IDEO Design thinking process Design thinking process by IDEO By their own admission, IDEO did not invent design thinking, but they have become known for practicing it and applying it to solving problems small and large. It's f

WhatsApp is a great way to show off your status. It is an expression that expresses one's thoughts, ideas and feelings in a creative way, especially written about it. WhatsApp citizenship shows how you can uniquely and easily integrate your own ideas into Cox. Updating status on WhatsApp is the way to live your life or move on. Also, citizens want to update coats and have fun, if you can handle clever and effective advice. There are different types of WhatsApp that are used depending on their convenience or mood.