Concept Map

by K. Yue
S

1. Introduction

• Concept map is a graphical tool for learning, organizing and representing knowledge.
• It is a very simple and flexible tool, especially suitable for high level thinking.
  • Concepts: nodes with labels.
  • Relationships between concepts (Propositions): edges (with labels) between concept nodes.
• Some resources:
  • Joseph D. Novak & Alberto J. Cañas, The Theory Underlying Concept Maps and How to Construct and Use Them
• Concept maps page at University of Alberta.
• What is a good concept map? -- one view.
• There are many advice, suggestions, best practices, examples, etc. of concept maps in the Web.
• You don't need to remember them all. They are also not always the best.
• Instead, starting using concept maps on your favorite concepts. You will learn along the way.
• In general, some activities involved in constructing a concept map:
  • Identify the focus question, if possible.
  • Identify the concepts with labels
  • Identify the relationships: participating concepts, labels and directions
  • Refine, correct, and improve
• A relational DB/ER example in concept maps.

3. Why Concept Map?

The following figures explain the unique attractive feature of concept maps. Will be discussed in the class more.

3. CMAP

• A free tool for drawing concept map from the good folks of the Florida Institute for Human & Machine Cognition (IHMC).
• Download and install "CMAP Tools" from http://cmap.ihmc.us/products/.
• Easy to learn and use, but if you want some tutorial, you can find them at http://cmap.ihmc.us/docs/cmaptools-help-videos.
• An YouTube video on how to use cmap, the tool of our choice.

Exercise:

Use CMAP to draw a concept map of a topic selected in the class.