MindMeister

Description of and rationale for how the technology might be used with and preferably by students (Bloom's)
MindMeister takes an ancient idea of brainstorming and transforms it into a more organized and visually pleasing arrangement of thoughts. Making concept maps was extremely frustrating for me in middle school and high school. I always had a brilliant idea, but came up with a better one ten minutes later. I would erase or redirect my ideas only to end up with a mess on my paper. MindMeister allows students create a clean visual of their train of thoughts. For a project, I would have students create a concept map on MindMeister before writing a story. I would first teach them about the six elements of a narrative to help come up with fully developed stories. This will require them to apply the knowledge of story they are taught. By creating a map on MindMeister they are able to ensure that they are including all parts to a story. They will analyze their map before continuing on to the next stage of writing a story, which will help eliminate unnecessary story content or rambling. I believe students will be less overwhelmed in writing the story if they have a clear direction of where they hope to take it.

Consideration of struggles for implementation (student, systemic, and/or hardware)
This may be difficult because it is more time consuming than simply drawing a map up on paper if the students are unfamiliar with the technology. Students will also only be able to edit it when at a computer, so, if they suddenly come upon a better idea, they will have to wait until they have access to a computer to alter/add it. It also requires use of the Internet and a Website that only allows free trials. The school or students would have to invest the $5 a month into the program if we planned to use it for multiple projects.

Consideration of the biases and trade-offs of the technology:
A trade-off the amount of time for preparation and creation required compared to drawing it out on paper. It is also harder to view the entire map if it expands past a normal screen size. Another limitation is that it only allows you to create one mind map per page. I like to compartmentalize things, so I become frustrated when I can't set other ideas off to the side. Everything must connect to the original idea.

Explanation of how the project meets the selected teacher standard and student standards
INTASC Standards:
The use of MindMeister satisfies INTASC standard #6: Assessment because teachers are able to observe students' understanding of the six elements of a story. Students are required to include all six elements in their concept maps and stories. Having students complete the concept map including their made-up elements of the story, I will be able to assess their understanding of the elements. If their ideas in their concept maps do not prove their full understanding of the six elements, I will be able to address the issue before they attempt to write a meaningless story.

ISTE Standards:
The use of MindMeister satisfies the first ISTE Standard: Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity. I will be facilitating and inspiring students by giving them guidance as to how to create their own story ideas utilizing the six elements of story. I will also foster their creativity by having them write their own short story and by planning it out first. This is important in story writing because anyone can simply come up with a mediocre story on the spot and write it as they go. Students will be required to think more in depth and find a story within themselves to share with the rest of the class.

Cite and evaluate educational research related to the tech use (261)
Croasdell, David T.; Freeman, Lee A.; and Urbanczewski, Andrew (2003) "Concept Maps for Teaching and Assessment, "Communications of the Association for Information Systems: Vol. 12, Article 24. Retrieved at http://aisel.aisnet.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3190&context=cais.

This article brought new ideas for concept map use to my attention. It mentioned having students make concept maps for note taking, which I think is a great idea, because then they are forced to make the connections between what the teacher is talking about for themselves. One thing I don't agree with is the idea of replacing tests with concept maps. This may work in some areas of study, but I see it being a bias way of assessing students. I think it's a great tool for formative assessment that may be used to understand where students are at and how you can help them better understand material. However, giving a student a grade base on their ability to make connections doesn't seem logical. How do you determine an A from a B or a B from a C based on them creating a concept map. Also, not everyone thinks the same or makes the type of connections a teacher may be looking for, so having such an open-ended "test" is not a good assessment of a students understanding of a broad range of information.