College Students' Collaborative Use of Inspiration‚Ñ¢ to Generate Concept Maps in an Educational Technology Class

Abstract

Presented is a qualitative study of five groups of college students using Inspiration™ to construct concept maps in an educational technology class. Analyses addressed how the maps changed during the semester, how the course concepts were applied in a final project, and whether or not students reported that the concept mapping activity facilitated their learning. Participants easily learned to use Inspiration™ for developing concept maps. Findings suggest that the concept maps did reflect student learning and that when done in collaboration seemed to facilitate learning. However, collaboration did not come easily or successfully to two of the five groups. The final projects of students who were in problematic groups were less sophisticated than those developed by students who did work collaboratively on their concept maps. An important implication is that students need to be provided with more assistance in successful collaboration to effectively use the concept mapping tool.