An effective, and increasingly important, way to address information overload is to create organizing frameworks that support learning and sense-making. Visual frameworks support the viewer to grasp the overall "shape" and extent of the information landscape.
Mind mapping tools, such as NovaMind, MindJet, and Inspiration, are widely used in business, education and government. Concept mapping tools are becoming increasingly important due to the capability of concept maps to represent the knowledge claims and to reveal the conceptual hierarchy and interconnections among the key concepts the domain-of-interest.
The terms "mind-mapping" and "concept-mapping" are often used interchangeably, but the tools, process and products are different in important ways. While both of these process result in a visual diagrams, mind maps are best-suited for brainstorming, to create flow charts or visual representations that sketch out a project plan. Mind mapping software has become quite sophisticated. Mind Jet's MindManager, for example, can be a project management tool when used as a
front-end to Microsoft Project.
Tony Buzan is credited with creating
mind mapping as a tool to support the associative syle of "lateral
thinking." Because it was created to support highly associative
thinking, the connections in a mind map can be arranged in any way. Usually, they radiate out from
a central core, e.g., an image or word. Buzan calls the result an "information picture."
Concept mapping was developed by Prof. Joseph Novak, and his research
team at Cornell University, as a way to represent the emerging conceptual structure of science knowledge in K-12 students. It has subsequently been used to represent the expert knowledge of scientists, product development teams, physicians, attorneys, software designers, and business strategists.
Novakian concept
maps are rooted in a David Ausubel's theory of meaningful learning and a theory of
knowledge. Concept maps support cognitive development by: 1) helping the learner and teacher determine what the learner knows, the hierarchy and relationships of concepts in her cognitive structure, and 2) by providing advance organizers that foster the meaningful integration of new information into existing cognitive structure.
Concept maps move beyond "information pictures" to create "conceptual landscapes." A major advance of concept maps as a tool to support cognitive development and expert learning is that they are hierarchical and are constructed from building blocks called "propositions". Propositions are two concepts joined by a linking phrase, e.g., "Knowledge" "is" "Power."
Research indicates that the brain stores knowledge in units of meaning that have the same structure as propositions. The capacity of concept maps and concept mapping to facilitate meaningful learning and knowledge construction is validated by over thiry years of research by Prof. Joseph D. Novak--first at Cornell University and continuing since 1992 at the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC).
The power of concept mapping lies in the rigor and clarity required to create a concept map, starting with the creation of a concise focus question.
There are a number of articles by Novak, Alberto Canas, head of the CmapTools team at IHMC, and their colleagues, on Sound Knowledge Strategies' resource page.
The IHMC website contains links to hundreds of research papers on:
- the impact of concept mapping on learning,
- technical papers on CMapTools, and
- a suite of concept maps representing the features and applications of concept mapping and CMapTools.
I posted some Cmaps to Flickr a few days ago and encountered a Cmap posted by someone else representing how Flickr works. We may be at the beginning of a surge in the use of concept mapping and CmapTools to create and represent knowledge on the web.
It is a powerful cognitive technology that can enhance the knowledge creation and knowledge sharing in any organization and as an element of Web 2.0.
Sound Knowledge Strategies' portfolio provides examples of concept maps I have created for clients and case studies of how they have used them.
If you've used mind-mapping or concept mapping to enhance learning, sense-making or business processes, please share your success. Questions and comments are welcome.
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