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2011 Mind-Mapping Inside and Outside of the Classroom Dylan E. Wittkower Old Dominion University, [email protected]

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Repository Citation Wittkower, Dylan E., "Mind-Mapping Inside and Outside of the Classroom" (2011). Philosophy Faculty Publications. 11. https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/philosophy_fac_pubs/11 Original Publication Citation Wittkower, D.E. (2011). Mind-Mapping Inside and Outside of the Classroom. In Learning through digital media: Experiments in technology and pedagogy (pp. 221-229): Institute for Distributed Creativity.

This Book Chapter is brought to you for free and open access by the Philosophy & Religious Studies at ODU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Philosophy Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of ODU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Politics of Digital Culture Series Learning Through Digital Media Experiments in Technology and Pedagogy

Edited by R. Trebor Scholz

The Institute for Distributed Creativity (iDC) The Institute for Distributed Creativity publishes materials related to The New School’s About This Publication biennial conference series The Politics of Digital Culture, providing a space for connec- tions among the arts, design, and the social sciences.

The Internet as Playground and Factory (2009) MobilityShifts: An International Future of Learning Summit (2011) The Internet as Soapbox and Barricade (2013) www.newschool.edu/digitalculture

This publication is the product of a collaboration that started in the fall of Editor of the Book Series The Politics of Digital Culture: R. Trebor Scholz 2010 when a total of eighty New School faculty, librarians, students, and staff Advisory Board: Ute Meta Bauer, Megan Boler, Gabriella Coleman, Cathy Davidson, came together to think about teaching and learning with digital media. These Kathleen Fitzpatrick, Elizabeth Losh, Margaret Morse, Kavita Philip, McKenzie Wark conversations, leading up to the MobilityShifts Summit, inspired this collec-

Copy Editor: Angela Carr tion of essays, which was rigorously peer-reviewed. Print Design: Jena Sher 1 Peer Review: MediaCommons The Open Peer Review process took place on MediaCommons, an all-elec- Publisher: The Institute for Distributed Creativity tronic scholarly publishing network focused on the field of Media Studies www.distributedcreativity.org developed in partnership with the Institute for the Future of the Book and The New School, 65 West 11th Street, New York, NY 10011 the NYU Libraries. We received 155 comments by dozens of reviewers. The authors started the review process by reflecting on each other’s texts, followed This project is supported by a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur by invited scholars, and finally, an intensive social media campaign helped to Foundation and The New School. solicit commentary from the public at large.

ISBN 978-0-615-451448-0 The New School is a leading institution when it comes to incorporating cross- disciplinary digital learning into the curriculum. It offered its first Media Learning Through Digital Media is released under a Creative Commons NoDerivs, Non- Studies degree program already in 1975. Learning Through Digital Media re- Commercial, Attribution, ShareAlike License. Every effort was made to find all copy- affirms this commitment to interdisciplinary innovation. right holders of the images in this publication. Screen shots of websites are released under an educational fair use license. 1 See .

Download the free PDF or eBook (Kindle, iPad), purchase the printed book on Amazon.com or Lulu.com, or visit the publication’s website at www.learningthroughdigitalmedia.net

The publisher has paid close attention to the correctness of URLs of websites men- tioned in this book but cannot be responsible for these websites remaining operational.

Cover Image: Luis Camnitzer (Uruguayan, born 1937), The Instrument and Its Work, 1976. Wood, glass, and metal, 30 x 25.5 x 5 cm, Collection Reto Ehrbar, Zurich, Photo by David Allison, © 2010 Luis Camnitzer. Contents 149 16. Teaching with Google Docs, or, How to Teach in a Digital Media Lab without Losing Students’ Attention Abigail De Kosnik 157 17. Using Twitter—But Not in the Classroom David Parry 167 18. Voice, Performance and Transience: Learning Through Seesmic Holly Willis 175 19. Teaching and Learning with Video Annotations Jonah Bossewitch and Michael D. Preston 185 20. YouTube Pedagogy: Finding Communities of Practice in a viii Introduction: Learning Through Digital Media R. Trebor Scholz Distributed Learning World Elizabeth Losh 195 21. Community Media in the Digital Age Colin Rhinesmith 1 01. Delicious: Renovating the Mnemonic Architectures of Bookmarking 203 22. The Virtual Cutting Room Martin Lucas Shannon Mattern 213 23. Learning with Handbrake: A Ripping Story Kevin Hamilton 11 02. Follow, Heart, Reblog, Crush: Teaching Writing with Tumblr 221 24. Mind-Mapping Inside and Outside of the Classroom Adriana Valdez Young D.E. Wittkower 17 03. Blogging Course Texts: Enhancing Our Traditional Use of 231 25. Crowdmapping the Classroom with Ushahidi Kenneth Rogers Textual Materials Alex Halavais 241 26. Book Sprints and Booki: Re-Imagining How Textbooks 27 04. Socializing Blogs, a Guide for Beginners Tiffany Holmes are Produced Adam Hyde 35 05. When Teaching Becomes an Interaction Design Task: Networking 249 27. Productivity in the Age of Social Media: Freedom the Classroom with Collaborative Blogs Mushon Zer-Aviv and Anti-Social Fred Stutzman 47 06. Children of the Screen: Teaching Spanish with Commentpress 257 28. Would You Like to Teach My Avatar? Learning in Second Life Sol B. Gaitán Patrick Lichty 57 07. Facebook as a Functional Tool & Critical Resource 267 29. Media Production with Arduino Jonah Brucker-Cohen Mark Lipton 273 30. A Path towards Global Reach: The Pool 69 08. Beyond Friending: BuddyPress and the Social, Networked, Craig Dietrich with Jon Ippolito Open-Source Classroom Matthew K. Gold 285 31. Ethnographic Research and Digital Media Laura Forlano 81 09. An Argument for the Web in the Equally Messy Realities 295 32. Sharing Research and Building Knowledge through Zotero of Life, Democracy, and Teaching Vanalyne Green Mark Sample 89 10. Copy Your Homework: Free Culture and Fair Use with 305 33. The Wicked Problem of Pedagogy, An Afterword Wikimedia Commons Michael Mandiberg Elizabeth Ellsworth 99 11. How I Used to Get My Students to Do Their Readings Ulises A. Mejias 313 A Digital Learning Tool Kit 109 12. Google Wave: Pedagogical Success, Technological Failure? 319 Acknowledgements Kathleen Fitzpatrick 320 Praise for Learning Through Digital Media 117 13. Learning on Mobile Platforms Jessica Irish 322 Advisory Board 125 14. Mobile Learning Tools: A Teachable Moment in the Age of the App 325 Biographies David Carroll 137 15. Teaching and Learning with Omeka: Discomfort, Play, and Creating Public, Online, Digital Collections Jeffrey W. McClurken Mind-Mapping Inside and 221 Outside of the Classroom

D.E. Wittkower

Students who take my courses have neither the desire nor expectation that they will learn anything about digital media. My use of digital media in the classroom is reinforced by a belief that familiarity with new media and digital literacy will be of significant value in their future lives, but is primarily mo- tivated by a belief that digital media offer significant new opportunities for teaching and learning.

In the course I teach most frequently, “Business Ethics,” I have frequently re- designed course structure, delivery and activities. While other colleges and universities are beginning pilot programs where iPads are given to all students, I continue to have students who do not have a home computer of any kind, but use on-campus labs to do all their work, which they store a semester at a time on thumb drives. Some of my students have not become comfortable composing on a computer and write all their work by hand before “typing it in” to a computer. Some live in rural areas where only dialup Internet access is available.

These circumstances both limit my use of digital media and make it all the more imperative. I must take care not to disadvantage students who are behind on the learning curve or who lack easy access to digital technology, but if I let 24 222 format for ease of access and keyword-searchability. I continue to require keyword-searchability.to continueand accessI of ease for format for the class in audiobook form. The reader was provided to students in PDF recorded for LibriVox myself, sothat students could listen to theentire text restI form—the book audio domain public textsthesein recordedof some LibriVoxvolunteershad Other domain. public the in are used translations fromPlato,myownselections of Descartes,Nietzsche. and Hume,All Kant in textbookproduced commercially-my of rid got I ago,years Three elements. these to related media digital teaching success more had have I and students, my of all to familiar more are that media digital of elements other certainly are There part ofmy culture anddaily life butsimply isnot apart oftheirs. specific expressivea is that is form Blogging post? blog a occurswith thing and structure were completely off. Why should I be surprised when the same style,toneif surprised havebeen not would I newspaperarticle, a write to newspaperneverreada studentshad askedwhoprevious experience.I Had their in them for modeled comments reasonable and postings thoughtful havelikelytothorough,were not thus and politics,news,entertainment or whoreadthose thathad pect likelyblogshad read blogscentered sports,on the platform. Many students reported that they had never read a blog. I sus Much of the problem, I believe, came from their simple lack of familiarity with delete racist posts. to had I times, Several posts. original reiterate the and with agree simply to conversations,tended the but further not did often another one for left studentsCommentsethics. business toconnected not scandals political or linksposted were very oftenoff-topic,sports about either tendedtoand be websitebythe using basicHTML.The afterin GUIsinstructionin-class or reliablylinks,either Blogger,postingin succeedPress and not students did story,wouldor give purelya personal diaristicresponse.and Wordboth In newsa story,clude the materialin the simplysummarize wouldsometimes alwaysnot wouldin they but it, on comment to and class relatedtostory They did not understand the format of a blog post: I told them to post a news much from the gained process, and many students job performed greatpoorly and hated a the experience. did students some While assignments. ging blog student abandoned twoyears,I for approaches different trying After that learning curve, thevalue oftheirdegree willbegreatly diminished. realprogresssome students making thesedegree completewithout their in

“Introduction to Philosophy” and produced a reader a produced Philosophy”and to “Introduction - - - - students often choose not to purchase textbooks, either using the library’sthe using textbooks,purchaseeither to not choose oftenstudents Poor benefits. of variety a provided has reader/listenerformat digital The use inclass. they percentagethat havelaptopssmall a only since class, in them textwith theyaremorethat likely $15, so havetothan less studentthe of the costto a students to purchase a printed copy, produced by the campus copy services at assignments and construction of digital media rather than mere reception mere than rather media digital of construction and assignments wayallowedimproveparticipatorytotoa leads me thatin studentlearning software.mind-mapping versatilehavemedia,a digitalmaps, of Mind form varioushavegoals,differentexperimentingwith I waysthese been using of self-reliance—for and leadership in studentstraining of goal instructional my meet not do I uses, consumer-orientedmedia these on building by and digital media like MP3s, M4Bs, and MPEGs is primarily as consumers, with which students are already familiar and comfortable.However, only so much can be done while depending solelyTheir on digital media familiarity with or Internet access. storedor printed, for those with unreliable or irregular off-campus computer resources online and digital learning objects, other most of which can and be downloaded and these around based is Discussion tuition. their through EBSCOhoston JSTOR,and accesses towhich students have already paidfor journals fromdrawn are readings our now textbook: our eliminatedhave I myto Ethics” changes“Business course.similar making processof the in am I jobs andchildren. full-time have who those as flexibility, such this from gain to most have and locations of access to course materials—especially those students who modes flexible of advantagetake to them allow that skills multi-tasking work, to commutes, seem in gym, and the be in well-trained the during and at materials course reviewing reported have Students player. MP3 an has reader.newimproved the nearlybyeveryAdditionally,thatstudent seems it greatlythe despitelowered accesswasgreatlycost.Overall,of ease though, textbookpurchasetothe not computers, choose wouldstill sometimes and the text itself. These same students are also less likelyannotating to haveof undesirability easy accesssocial to the and class, in materials to access of abilityto refer to materials atcriticalbefore momentsas such exams, lack a in the materials,courseseveretoaccess irregular disadvantages including producesnumerousstudent,which another fromcopyborrowing a or copy -

Wittkower 223 224 maps insofar asthey are highly structured andcontain very few images. tion are mind maps insofar as they haveor application, I use the termsonly interchangeably. a The maps that singleI utilize in instruc central node, but colors.areimagesand consistentlySinceneither particularmethodology a implies concept hierarchicalmeaningsin of relationshipsconnections, of littleand use with while “concept maps” may have more than one central node and a stricter set include images, colors and free associations, often similar to brainstorming; “.” Most commonly, “mind maps”a from havedistinguishedinexactly a but single centraloften node,map”is and research,a “mind this In activity (Näykki andJärvelä). collaborative instructor-student in-class an as and Collins), and Wheeler Kokotovich; Abd-El-Khalick; and (Abi-El-Mona assignment outside-class individual an as Chang), and Chen (Liu, exercise in-class individual Wang), an and as (Liu assignment group student a as Hennessy), and Hussain structurally-related(Farrand,studymethod a as use applications, including these of implementationvarious numerouson conductedhavestudies been empirical and ways, of variety a in implemented been have applications differentarguments.Thesediagramming in representationevidentiaryand brainstorming,conceptualstricthierarchies,in in used trees, decision in in structurewidelystudiedadaptedbeen and by has others. Conceptare maps While concept-mapping is clearly indebted to Novak’s work in particular, the a learning. “scaffolding”foras material, of presentation and communication createdprocesslearning expert-createdthe of in use maps the and in map other applications of the concept map researched has Novakstructure, categories. established including and the existing under use concepts of learner- of new by subsumption the primarily is constituted learning of meaningful knowledge was fundamentally hierarchical in structure, that and that the process claimed psychology, which Gestalt and Piaget from models on based this process primarily on David Ausubel’s theory of knowledge and learning, student understanding in orderrepresenting of tomethod a betteras NovakJoseph bydeveloped guidewas Concept-mapping student instruction. Novak based kinds ofcontent-rich, flexible, andanalytic uses. PowerPoint,softwarethe provenhas varietyverytoa adaptabledifferent of of bankruptcypedagogical the in belief a of out tool,presentation in-class an as simply maps mind using began originally I While consumption. and -

problematic. technique the of effectiveness the of studies empirical of applicability the of the structure can be viewed as a feature rather than a bug, but it does make structural opennessprimarywhose The superficial. quitesimilaritymay be applications different of variety a to referring terms, family-resemblance as treated best are map” “mind and map” terms “concept the and defined, ill- often is maps these of structure exact the research, scholarly in Even more detailcanbe includedinamap-basedoutline thaninatraditionaloutline. neglecting, and what I am spending too much time on. Also, with collapsible nodes, much usefulfor gaining alarge-scale grasp on what Iplan to write about, what questions Iam projects: writing of Maps Expert-created maps more applications that seemvaluable that Ihave notyet tried: severalare there ways,and different of number a in FreeMind used have I interesting inappearance. parent and child nodes cannot be labeled. FreeMind is also particularly un between connections the edge-definition: allow not does FreeMind map. gle center node, which limits the complexity that can be represented by the however, present other kinds of advantages. FreeMind only supports a sin easytotrainis nodes, and studentsin software,touse.HTML Other of use limited forallows images,picture.” the of “big insertion enables Further,it allowing me to create large maps with a great amount of detail without losing collaborativelynodes,collapsiblemap has a constructtoit enough class; in lightweightis It use.classroom for maps construct quickly to me allowing straightforward, and simple is it because frequently most FreeMind use I and CmapTools. VUE , XMind, as programs,such mapping structured loosely more and ; and MindMapping SciPloreFreeMind, as such grams, such as Carneades, Athena and ; strongly structured mapping pro programs,specific argument-map programs,free,cross-platformincluding cost- varietyamong great is Theregoals. instructional my with keeping in cross-platform, as these are basic requirements for maximizing accessibility and cost-free not is thatsoftware evaluated investigatednor neither have available.programsI mind-mapping different of number great a are There This is similar to writing an outline, but I have found it more more it found have I but outline, an writing to similar is This - - -

Wittkower 225 226 Maps as research/writing tools: is morehelpfulforinformationretention thantraditionalstudymethods. some research has been conducted that suggests mind-mapping, in some forms at least, tools: mnemonic or study as Maps students wouldbeassessedbased ontheirsuccessin“fillingtheblanks.” map, representing, for example, the argument structure within a reading assignment, and sufficiently covered. Another obvious method would be to provide a student with a partial graded or used as feedback to determine what aspects of the subject area have not been could be asked to map out their knowledge of a given subject area, and the map could be Maps as assessment tools: Learner-created maps the reading,priortoourdiscussion. section, and could also be provided to students in following semesters to use while doing so we would all know exactly where we were in the text and what was happening in that parts I already planned to discuss. This map could then be used as an in-class reference, text since I had to map out every argument in every paragraph, not only take notes on carefulunderstandingthethethorough andmoreof a gain to meforced chunksandable manage into work the up divided process This notes. lecture together putting of lieu in Philosophy. ducing, for example, a full paragraph-by-paragraph map of Descartes’ pro itself, material the out mapped I material, the of presentation my out mapping than presented: be to material of Maps tation forthestudentstoclick throughasthelectureprogresses. education, where M4Bs of lectures will be provided along with a of the presen Maps of recorded lectures: conference presentations. I have used a mind map of this sort as a replacement for PowerPoint in class and in both through the presentation. The mind map can then be provided as a form of lecture notes. entcomponents present onscreen and collapse and expand nodes as we move forward differ to backward and forward refer subtopic, to topic from through click presentation, the duringonscreen map mind the put Ipresentation itself.the expanded into be can present an entire to presentation able in a single am document. The I outline notes, collapsible that I create with for a paper map a using format outline an into notes lecture presentations: of Maps Each day before class, I would map out the reading to be discussed that day day that discussed be to reading the out map would I class, Eachbefore day This is my most frequent use of the software. By structuringsoftware.By the of frequentusemost my isThis I am currently recording in-class lectures for use in distance I have not yet tried this. I see two main methods. I have not yet tried this, but I know of others who have, I havenotassignedI student thisaas activity, but In my “IntroductionPhilosophy”mycourse,ratherto In Meditations on First tudents Students - - - - Maps as analytic tools: analytic as Maps tion totheconnectionsmadebetweentopics. atten with and precisely subtopics and topics categorize to students forces and outline, traditional a in than obvious more sections some in detail of lack a or omissions makes an outline of a paper before writing, a mind map can be assigned. The mind map structure andwhohave seen success thisinuse. Just studentsas might assignedbe produceto and forced them to slow down and exhibit care that they might not otherwise have taken. analysis, under argument the exactof the presuppositions of and understanding content node.per detail and nodes of number organization, hierarchical about expectations detailing used was rubric ware to present arguments from our reading served as a model soft for the the of assignmentuse in-class and My a journals. peer-reviewed from articles case, this sources—in primary their within contained arguments and topics the out map to students assigned I S tudents reported that the assignment helped them gain a better a gainassignmentthem helpedthe reported tudentsthat When doingresearch, preparationin writingafor assignment, - -

Wittkower 227 228 discussion hadbeenledtothecurrentpropositionunderconsideration. the how and discussed been already had what mind in keep could and lost, become not did studentsthat ensuringwide-ranging conversationwhile a have to us allowedThis real-time. in answersstudents’ and questions my in wrote I topics, these on dialogue overhead, perhaps with a few prompts, like “Truth” or “Justice.” the As we engaged onin map blank a put have I lecture, than ratherdiscussion aroundprimarily based discussion: in-class of mapping Real-time maps Expert/Learner-created

n several occasions, for class sessions sessions class for occasions, several On S ocratic ocratic Ausubel, David. & Winston, 1968. Ausubel, David. (2008): 298–312. EighthGraders’ScienceAchievement.” Abi-El-Mona, Issam and Fouad Abd-El-Khalick. “The Influence of Mind Mapping on Works Cited Thematic L L Non-Hierarchical MindMapping.” Kokotovich, Vasillje. “Problem Analysis and Thinking Tools: An Empirical StudyTechnique.” Farrand, Paul, Fearzana 1963. Nursing CriticalThinking inBaccalaureateNursingStudents.” Wheeler, LindaA.andSusanK.R.Collins.“The InfluenceofConceptMappingon Tools inSchoolsandCorporations. Novak, Joseph. UniversityPress, 1984. Novak, Joseph,andD.B.Gowin. 1970. Novak, Joseph. Technology in Education Knowledge ConstructioninGroups.” Collaborative Näykki, Piia and &Society Comprehension.” L iu, Ming- iu, Pei- C oncept Mapping L in, C 19.6 (2003): 339–346. hou and Jhen-Yu Wang. “Investigating Knowledge Integration in Web-Based C 13.2 (2010): 25–39. hiu-Jung earning UsingConceptMappingAssessment.” Learning, Creating,andUsingKnowledge:ConceptMapsasFacilitative The ImprovementofBiologyTeaching. The Psychology ofMeaningful Learning. Educational Psychology: ACognitiveView. S anne Järvelä. “ Computers andEducation Medical Education L earning C H hen and Yu-Ju ussain and Enid 40.3 (2008): 359–387. 40.3(2008):359–387. S Learning HowtoLearn. H trategy on EF ow Pictorial Knowledge Representations Mediate Design Studies New York: Routledge, 2010. 36.5 (2002): 426–431. C hang. “Effects of a H School ScienceandMathematics ennessy. “The Efficacy of the ‘Mind Map’ L 54.2 (2010): 436–445.

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Wittkower 229