Students' Work Reflection

Technology has become an important part of the learning process for today's students. Not only in the classroom but also in the home and while at play. One of the significant aspects of technology in the classroom is the computer. Because the computer allows the students to accomplish tasks that would otherwise require more time and effort, the students seem more willing to do these tasks. One such task is the construction of concept maps. Concept mapping helps students to learn visually while creating relationships of new ideas with previous knowledge. Constructing concept maps on paper can become a cumbersome task when trying to make adjustments to an already started map. Computer concept mapping software such as Inspiration© gives the flexibility to make the necessary adjustments without a lot of effort. This software is very "user friendly" and is therefore not threatening to the students. This allows the students to concentrate on the concepts and how they are related instead of how to use the software.

Most of the students are so technology oriented that they are able to get involved in the finer points and tricks of the Inspiration software. They like to play around with the various symbols. They are very adept at being able to go out on the Internet and acquire pictures which they use as symbols in their concept maps. They also like to experiment with the various background colors and text fonts and colors in their concept symbols.

One of the most exciting things to me is how concept mapping and specifically Inspiration allow the students to learn necessary relationships without having to concentrate on them. In fact they have fun learning these relationships. I would like to thank HSTA for making two twenty computer site licenses available to the students of John Marshall High School.