Concept Maps & Academic Journaling
First Branched From: Digital Garden?
I love concept maps. Clearly. LYJ is one.
I love them because concept mapping, to me, is what learning is. I feel it is a part of critical thinking.
I'm unsure how often concept maps are used (strategically and intentionally) in education. Students can of course make them whenever they choose.
I'm specifically wondering how often their use is directed by the educator delivering the instruction. I wonder when, if, how often, and under what circumstances do educators, curriculum writers, and institutions consider them critical.
Why do you care about concept maps so much?
One reason I value concept maps is because they allow me to see my learning habits.
On a more immediate level, they can also help me see where and how I'm struggling to grasp a particular concept.
I started an academic journal that lists what I've noticed about how I learn and what my preferences are.
For example, I wrote:
"Phenomenon of being given steps without being given a goal:
When people give me instructions without telling me the goal, I get confused, frustrated, I feel lost, out of control, and out of the loop. Example: Being told the steps to save a document instead of hearing "save the document".
I noted that I appreciate it when the course asked me a question instead of just giving a fact. I noticed how that primed me for the information that would come next.
That comes full circle with concept mapping and the choice to structure this site as a digital garden. Purpose and context are a critical part of learning for me. I prefer it when content feels "conversational" in the sense that it is explorative, sparks curiosity, and elicits a response from me. "Prefer" is a careful term. The right word might actually be need.
Journaling & Learning: This is all coming full circle.
I am an student, studying education, that is studying myself while I study education, so I can create better learning experiences and learning habits for my peers.
What you'll find is that everything comes back to journaling. How is this related?
Well, what I've just described is journaling. I kept record about something related to myself.
My journals, as a collective, are a concept map or garden or sorts.
I created different journals for different purposes. While I was journaling, I was organizing my thoughts too. When I reflected on my journals, I also reflected on the subtext, the non-journaled communication. I wondered why I created specific journals for specific purposes in the first place and what it meant if I wrote about a topic in more than one journal, deciding that it fit in more than one category.
