Tuesday, February 04, 2003

Another Software Tool for Concept Mapping This posting extends the discussion of concept mapping, cognitive mapping, and topic maps by introducing another tool, the IHMC Concept Map Software. IHMC CMS is available for free downloads and use by educational, non-profit institutions; the software works on Windows, Mac, Solaris, and Linux platforms. An online Tutorial is availale to orient the new user to the software features. The Institute for Human and Machine Cognition at the University of West Florida developed and supports the software. Sample CMaps are provided at the web site, plus extensive information about concept maps from the work of Dr. Joseph Novak and others in the field of cognitive psychology: "Concept maps are tools for organizing and representing knowledge. They include concepts, usually enclosed in circles or boxes of some type, and relationships between concepts or propositions, indicated by a connecting line between two concepts. Words on the line specify the relationship between two concepts" (p. 1 from "The Theory Underling Concept Maps and How to Construct Them," Novak, http://cmap.coginst.uwf.edu/info/). IHMC refers to their Concept Map Software as a "knowledge construction toolkit." CMS fits within the overall field of knowledge mapping and knowledge management although it emerges much more from the field of cognitive psychology than from the field of computer science. The merging and reconciliation of tools and ideas from multiple fields is one of the the challenges of current thinking about mapping. 6:15:46 AM    COMMENT []