Mind mapping and block-diagrams in teaching English
From iProjekt
Various Web 2.0 tools were used for the course Computer-Mediated Communication at the Faculty of Organization and Informatics, University of Zagreb. Tools for mind mapping and block-diagrams (flowcharts) were used for student assignments during this course. The reason for their use was to develop skills in the application of web-based tools and services for diverse purpose, including online knowledge presentation, as well as to illustrate course topics and facilitate peer-to-peer learning.
During the academic years 2008/2009 and 2009/2010 mind mapping and block-diagrams were used for simple online pedagogical activities including project activity. Those activities was use to support lerning of course related content. The Moodle system was used for instruction, while the blog tool was used for organization of links to artifacts created by the students.
For mind mapping the students used Bubbl.us and Mindomo and for block-diagrams/flowcharts the Gliffy tool was used. In fact, the grammar-related online activities were also performed with online cartoon strips (Bubblr), online presentations (SlideSix), and video tagging tool (Veotag).
In the academic years 2009/2010 and 2010/2011 the students were given assignments to explain and illustrate various elements of English grammar (the topics of grammar e-tivities were "Word building & functions", "Phrase", "Syntax", and "Other"/Miscellaneous. For instance, as a result of student online activity the "Acronyms/Abbreviations" word type was illustrated with two different mind maps, a flowchart, an online cartoon, and a tagged video (see first mind map created with Bubbl.us, second mind map created with Mindomo, and flowchart created with Gliffy.
Below is an example of the description of difference between "Acronym" and "Abbreviation" in English grammar on a wiki page together with a mind map created with Bubbl.us.
An example of an illustration of the difference between "Acronym" and "Abbreviation" in English grammar created with a mind mapping tool Mindomo.
A flowchart which explains the decision making process of differentiating between "Acronym" and "Abbreviation" in English grammar created with a block-diagram tool Gliffy.
