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Advantages of Creating Online Concept Maps
Advantages of Creating Online Concept Maps
Anyone who switches from paper concept maps to online ones immediately realizes the first great advantage of this choice: a new ease of editing. Creating visual connections on electronic devices such as PCs, tablets, or smartphones allows you to go back, make corrections, or add elements at any time, possibly moving and deleting obsolete elements. Erasing and making changes on a sheet of paper becomes cumbersome and can compromise the final result.
By overcoming the need to clearly have in mind the organization of the worksheet from the beginning, students can experiment freely and improve their map at every stage of learning. This type of advantage is essential to make the study process more flexible and customizable, allowing each student's individuality to develop to the fullest.
In addition, creating online maps allows you to overcome the limitations related to the nature of those who always aspire to perfection, even visually. This aspect is particularly important for those with ADHD or who are on the autism spectrum, as well as for all those students who pay particular attention to details.
2. Consult your maps anywhere
Using digital tools to create concept maps online allows you to easily consult the concept maps anywhere, taking advantage of the real-time updating offered by the internet. Recent technological development has made it possible to create web apps accessible from any device - such as Algor Education - that reproduce the same content on multiple devices simultaneously and allow users to make changes and view them in real-time, in educational or group study contexts.
Creating concept maps online, in other words, completely relieves students from the need to remember the physical copy of their creations. In addition, this type of real-time interaction can stimulate students' curiosity and creativity, allowing them to refer to what they have studied in a variety of situations and without the practical limits imposed by traditional methods.
3. Multimedia study: interactive maps
A typical characteristic of traditional learning methods is their "staticity." In other words, they are rigid study tools that are not only difficult to modify but also not very stimulating from a connective and visual point of view. Making maps with programs or online sites allows for easy inclusion of images, videos, and audio files, fully exploiting the potential of the internet.
Multimedia maps, those with images, videos, and web resources, are very effective for all students because they stimulate learning channels such as visual and auditory, in addition to traditional ones. In a classroom context, they are highly recommended to make lessons more inclusive and collaborative for all students, especially for those with Specific Learning Disorders (SLD) or Special Educational Needs (SEN).
The technological version of concept maps is useful, therefore, both in the creation phase for practical reasons and in the actual assimilation of the concepts. Having a diverse and stimulating visual impact is indeed a facilitator of the memorization process, as it creates a sensory stimulus that is otherwise difficult to reproduce.
4. Sharing study through the internet
The creation of online concept maps can revolutionize students' study method, as it allows them to share their work not only with the relevant adults (teachers or tutors), but also with their classmates. This particular functionality offered by the internet aligns perfectly with new teaching methods such as "peer-to-peer" or "equal" learning, where study groups are used to enhance the work of the brightest students and facilitate the learning process for those who struggle.
Maps and multimedia diagrams created online are increasingly used as a method of inclusive education in schools. On one hand, the possibility of interacting with others who are studying the same subjects allows for constant exchange, with educational growth that becomes transversal and surpasses the individual level. On the other hand, receiving feedback from teachers and parents can provide students with confidence, while also introducing a method of silent supervision for parents to ensure that they are organizing their work effectively.
5. Saving time with online maps
Logistically speaking, paper has obvious limitations when it comes to time management during text schematization. A common factor among all the advantages listed so far is that they all contribute to saving a lot of time, both in the creation and modification stages, compared to using paper and pen.
Time savings make the creation of maps easier, without compromising the effectiveness of learning. In fact, creating concept maps online allows for a less frustrating and more optimized educational process, providing additional space for further exploration or extracurricular interests.
Algor Education: Online concept maps at your fingertips
In conclusion, each of us learns in different ways and prefers different methods: some still use paper and pen, some only rely on digital tools, and others use a mix of the two. However, the advantages of creating online diagrams listed in this article cannot be ignored.
If you want to take advantage of all the benefits offered by online concept maps, then you cannot do without the Algor Education web app. The platform allows you to create your own concept maps online, both manually and automatically, starting from text files or keywords. Here is an example of a concept map created online with Algor.
Algor Education is designed to optimize the time and methods of editing concept maps, offering a very intuitive interface and aiming for 360° inclusivity. Through an innovative system, it also allows you to take advantage of all the functions of online platforms: multimedia maps, real-time sharing, and the ability to access them from all types of devices (tablet, PC, smartphone) without the need for troublesome manual data transfers.
Article by Nina Komadina, content creator.
