Ideaphora Insights

This post is written by Mary Chase, Ph.D., an expert in curriculum design, literacy education, and technology integration.

In previous posts, we’ve explored a variety of theories and educational approaches, and as I’ve written, opportunities to reflect on my own teaching practice have arisen. When I look back over the years (I started teaching in 1980!), I realize that one of the greatest lessons I’ve learned came from one of my dissertation advisors, the great Donald Graves. Whether in class, participating in a research project or just living his life, Don reminded us that teachers must be practitioners of the skills we teach, and show our students how important reading, writing and critical thinking are to our own lives. We had to make our own learning and discovery visible to them, not just “preach” a curriculum. I teach writing, and it has made a huge difference for me to write with my students, allowing them to watch me struggle and think and find my way to a meaning I didn’t even know was there. 

As we’ve seen, the Ideaphora knowledge mapping environment offers a powerful way for students to work through their thinking, decode text and, perhaps most importantly, find connections between ideas to trigger new insights. But what about us sharing our own discovery and thinking with our students? Ideaphora also makes it easy for us to include students in the journey as we make our own inroads to learning.

This post is written by Mary Chase, Ph.D., an expert in curriculum design, literacy education, and technology integration.

Why do educators make such a big deal about recognizing patterns of information and organizing facts? These skills are necessary to developing expertise. Expert knowledge goes beyond mere recall of facts to the ability to connect new information to old and create new understandings. John Bransford, an educational psychologist whose findings have centered on these ideas, has gone so far as to say, "Helping students to organize their knowledge is as important as the knowledge itself, since knowledge organization is likely to affect students’ intellectual performance." Focusing on patterns of information (rather than just discrete facts) is also important because these patterns are visual in nature and easily recalled.

This post is written by Mary Chase, Ph.D., an expert in curriculum design, literacy education, and technology integration.

In an earlier post, we explored the importance of dual coding in learning and retention. In short, when information is encoded in the brain both visually and verbally (that is, in the kinds of maps we create using Ideaphora) learning is enhanced. Dual coding facilitates making connections, understanding relationships, and recalling related details. Related to dual coding theory is John Sweller’s (1994) “cognitive load” theory. Sweller states that information may only be stored in long-term memory after first being attended to, and processed by, working memory.

Mark Oronzio, CEO and co-founder of Ideaphora, was interviewed by Brian Friendlander of Assistive Tek Times. Brian is a professor at the College of St. Elizabeth, a blogger, and an ed tech consultant who specializes in training educators in how to use mind mapping and assistive technology to address the needs of a diverse range of learners. Mark shared how Ideaphora began when industry colleagues introduced him to his co-founder, Anil Arvindam, an opportune meeting that brought together reknowned experts in their respective fields. He further explained how the Ideaphora web-based knowledge mapping environment supports educators in developing students' higher order thinking skills and deepening their understanding of curriculum concepts.