Monday 24 September 2012

Sustainable Development in the process of teaching and learning

"We must build a new world, a far better world - one in which the eternal dignity of man is respected"


The idea of improved concept mapping

Hello all,

I have not written a lot since my last post in July because I was on my holiday and I was also busy at the beginning of the school year. Writing the annual plans for 2012/2013 school year and so on. Here, I want to emphasize the sustainable development in the process of teaching and learning that is becoming so important part of every teaching and learning environment. There are also tech tools which can be used so students can share the understanding of their knowledge with the other students, too. I will post about one tool that is rewarding both for students and teachers.
One of the most useful and easily adopted tools to use in teaching and the study of complex development issues is concept mapping. Concept maps are especially handy in higher education when used to clarify the shared understanding of members of a working team and study circle. Education for sustainable development encourages students and teachers to use the interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches. In most cases, concept mapping can help participants to understand and clarify not only their own knowledge building but also the constructions of knowledge by other members of the study group.



Concept maps are easy to construct using pen and paper. An excellent computer software, called Cmap Tools program, is also available free of charge on the Internet. The Cmap Tools program has been developed by the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition. With this digital tool for concept mapping one can, for example share information and understanding with others in a virtual learning environment on the Internet and one can publish one’s own concept maps with pictures and data resources on the Internet. 

I hope that this tool will help you in your teaching process.

Best regards

Rade