Running head: USING TECHNOLOGY TO IMPROVE TEACHING METHODS 1

Using Technology to Improve Teaching Methods

Christy Dudziak

University of Houston, CUIN 3313

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Using Technology to Improve Teaching Methods

There are many kinds of technology that can be used to improve teaching methods and to

encourage learning. This paper will look specifically at using digital concept mapping in the

classroom as a high-impact teaching strategy.

Concept mapping is a learning strategy that involves visualizing relations between

concepts and ideas using graphical representations. It is a form of graphic organizer that consists

of various circles or boxes (called nodes) each of which contain a concept and are all interlinked

through linking phrases. The role of these linking phrases is to identify the relationship between

adjacent concepts.

As a learning tool, Concept maps were first introduced by Novak and his colleagues in

Cornell University in the 70s of last century. “A review of meta-analytic research shows that

concept mapping has a typical impact of d=0.66. This is a much larger impact than most other

teaching strategies.” [CITATION Sha19 \l 1033 ] 

Benefits of Concepts Maps for students

 Provide students with nonlinear visual ways to understand,

produce, and represent knowledge.

 Help develop higher-order thinking skills including analytical

skills.

 Facilitate the recall and processing of information.

 Help students externalize their knowledge and show their

understanding.
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 Make explicit structural forms of knowledge and relationships

between concepts and therefore enhance student’s

comprehension.

 They attend to different learning styles.

 They engage students in meaningful learning activities.

 They are effective organizational tools students can use to

organize their knowledge.

 Visual representations of knowledge is proved to both stimulate

and increase brain activity

 Boost social interaction, communication and collaborative

teamwork.

 They can be used in different content areas and with students

from different grades.

Uses of Concept maps

 Highlight the similarities and/or differences between concepts.

 Display the sub-components of a concept.

 Showcase the methodical steps involved in the development of a concept, event…etc.

 Brainstorm ideas on a particular topic.

 Formatively assess students knowledge during the learning process.

 Use concept maps in summative assessments at the end of a lesson or course unit.

The traditional way of creating concept maps is through pen and paper, however, in

today’s post we are highlighting the digital version of this activity. We are sharing with you a

number of interesting web tools you and your students can implement in the creation of digital
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concept maps. The strength of digital concept mapping tools is that they provide users with much

more flexibility and options to create dynamic and visually rich maps. Students can insert

different shapes, symbols, pictures, links, clip arts into their maps.  Needless to mention the fact

that digital concept maps are automatically saved and can be easily edited and accessed

anywhere anytime.  Also, some concept mapping tools provide collaborative features allowing

group of students to work on the same map in real-time.

Concept-mapping apps help students visually represent logical or causal relationships

between ideas associated with a certain phenomenon. In using concept-mapping apps, students

identified a variety of key words associated with climate and weather and visually organized the

logical relationships between these words. Students could insert the words into circles or boxes,

drawing lines between ideas with spokes into which they inserted sub-topics. These connecting

lines served to define the logical relationships between ideas, for example, how a new word

might serve as an illustrative example of a major topic.

There are many tutorial videos online as well as many programs to help the instructors

and students best use concept mapping in their classrooms and for projects. First one has to

choose the path way to best to obtain the goals.

Each of these offers different results as well as a different look. Knowing what your goal

is and the message you are trying to get across will help you to determine which path to use.
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Flowcharts should be used to develop understanding of how a process is done,

to study a process for improvement, to communicate to others how a process is done, when better

communication is needed between people involved with the same process,

to document a process, and / or when planning a project.

Pick Select a topic for your research

Research Find sources for your paper

Put your finings into your paper,

Write be sure to cite your sources
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References

Castek, J. (2013, March 1). Digital Concept Mapping. Retrieved from LITERACY BEAT:

https://literacybeat.com/2013/03/01/digital-concept-mapping/

Killian, S. (2019, August 4). How to Make a Concept Map Easily – with Examples. Retrieved

from EVIDENCE-BASED TEACHING:

https://www.evidencebasedteaching.org.au/concept-mapping-complete-guide/
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