spectrum
April 2009...

Alberto-3
Alberto Cañas is one of 150 members of the Institute of Human and Machine Cognition, a state supported, not-for-profit "think tank" in Pensacola, FL. The organization is structured to design anything having to do with humans, from moonrovers to educational models. Cañas works in the field of education and is presently working on projects in Panama and remote areas of Latin America. Today he discussed how the same techniques, concept mapping, would work beautifully in Escambia County Florida.

What is a concept map? A concept map is a diagram showing the relationships among concepts. They are graphical tools for organizing and representing knowledge. They include concepts, usually enclosed in circles or boxes of some type, and relationships between concepts indicated by a connecting line linking two concepts.

A concept map is a way of representing relations between ideas, images or words, in the same way that a sentence diagram represents the grammar of a sentence or a road map represents the locations of highways and towns. In a concept map, each word or phrase is connected to another and linked back to the original idea, word or phrase. Concept maps were developed to enhance meaningful learning in the sciences.

Concept mapping can be contrasted with the similar idea of mind mapping, which is often restricted to radial hierarchies and tree structures. A Mind map reflects what you think about a single topic, which can focus group brainstorming. A Concept map can be a map, a system view, of a real (abstract) system or set of concepts. Concept maps are more free form, as multiple hubs and clusters can be created, unlike mindmaps which fix on a single conceptual center.

Alberto Cañas was enthusiastically received and it is hoped that he will return at a future date to continue his presentation where he left off.

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JeromeSchmidtN1517
Jerome Schmidt



DeeGreenN1521
Dee Green



LesBradfordN1518
Leslie Bradford
This month's Drawing top winner is Jerome Schmidt. He walked away with the Epson CX4400 All-In-One printer. Dee Green, for the second month in a row, was the next winner selecting the 4GB Flash Drive and Leslie Bradford was the final victor with the combination Calendar, Thermometer, Alarm and Pen holder.

Congratulations to the winners...