With our new Classroom edition, it’s easy for educators to get started and use concept mapping in a digital learning environment with their students. Ideaphora Classroom provides all the features of the platform for individual users plus administrative tools for teachers: Google Classroom and Edmodo integration, class roster and workflow management, safety/privacy controls, and settings for content access and other preferences.
Ideaphora Classroom enables teachers to instill higher order thinking skills and lasting knowledge in all of their students as they interact with digital content. Students build concept maps right alongside digital content in a simplified platform that empowers them to focus, visualize and reflect on their thinking and learning.
It’s simple to set up. Educators can use their Google Classroom or Edmodo accounts to access Ideaphora Classroom and automatically populate their student groups.
Changes to class rosters in Google Classroom or Edmodo are simultaneously updated in Ideaphora. Step-by-step guides are available here. Educators who don’t have these accounts can work directly with Ideaphora to handle the set up process.
Ideaphora Classroom is fully integrated with Google Classroom to streamline rostering, lesson planning and assignments. While logged into Google Classroom, teachers can assign activities in Ideaphora to their students, and students can access their assignments in Ideaphora with the resources loaded and ready to use in their maps. Students can also submit their maps in Ideaphora to their teachers through Google Classroom.
Teachers can assign specific resources or allow students to identify their own to use in their maps. Teachers and students can select digital content from Ideaphora’s library of vetted open education resources as well as upload their own and third-party materials. Depending on their assignment, students can use several resources in a single map.
As students interact with digital content, such as ebooks, videos and PDFs, they discover key concepts and make connections in a visual map. Ideaphora Classroom effectively guides students through the concept mapping process all in one screen – from finding the right resources to connecting ideas to modifying their maps over time. At the same time, students are internalizing best learning practices that engage them in the top levels of Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy. Unique playback buttons on each map node aid students in studying and review by pointing them to the exact point in the content from which the concept was derived.
Concept mapping with digital content offers teachers an opportunity to engage students in various learning activities across the school curriculum. For ideas, check out the lessons from our grant winners’ gallery and previous blog posts by educators.
