A Bubbl.us Beginning

G'day fellow bloggers,

I'd like to use this post to share another application that I've been learning about over the past few weeks that goes by the name Bubbl.us.  It's a free and easy to use scaffolding tool for brainstorming and concept mapping designed to give the user an online space in which one can conceive, record, organise and integrate ideas about whatever takes one's fancy.  The following is a reflection on my journey as I take on the task of creating a visual representation of my interpretation of the literacy and numeracy demands of a secondary school student.  I will attempt to show some of the steps involved in building a concept map for the teaching of literacy and numeracy, according to the General Capabilities in the Australian Curriculum (2012). The images are used to detail the evolution of my design, beginning with my exploration of a number of graphical representation tools, and culminating in completion of the task using Bubbl.us. 

To Complete this task I embarked on a rigorous examination of the relevant resource material, first gaining new knowledge about the basic elements that make up the curriculum, then progressing to higher-order learning as I begin to understand the different elements and how they relate to one-another.  Several of my strategies will be made evident by viewing the following screenshots in sequence. 

The above image was my trial of Text2MindMap, which seemed quite intuitive initially, but was ultimately pipped at the post by Bubbl.us.  Among other things, the main reasons I preferred Bubbl.us were, easy of use, flexibility of bubble colour and placement, and the ability to easily manipulate connections between them.  Overall, I simply had an easier time imagining my students working with Bubbl.us to brainstorm and scaffold, compared to Mind2TextMap.  The image below shows what my concept map looked like part way through its creation.

It is possible to see in the above image how Bubbl.us enables one to get one's thoughts out of one's mind and out into the real world with haste and ease.  I was not cognisant of this during its creation, but the scaffolding tool was beginning to alter the way in which I have previously progressed through the task of outlining and explaining similar concepts.  Reflecting back now, I can see that the ability to pour my brain out onto the monitor, so to speak, stopped me from worrying about the specifics of the project, while I built up a framework from which to hang progressively more detailed information.  I found that I was able to jot down ideas as I thought of them and leave the question as to how I would meaningfully connect them together later.  

Now I can see that this means the scaffolding tool allowed me to start at the bottom of Bloom's taxonomy, absorbing and retaining basic facts first, then progress upwards as I began to understand their meaning and picture how they might interrelate.  By reflecting on my thoughts and actions as I undertook this task, I am able to somewhat get 'inside the head' of the student and understand their thought process.  I can then use pedagogical theories to meditate on how I, as a teacher, might best be able to design and apply similar projects for use in class.  

The image above shows how I continued to progress through the activity, gradually adding structure and thinking extensively on how to best portray interaction between the elements.  This method of construction enables one to focus on one piece of the puzzle at a time and worry about how it all fits together later.  Brilliant.

One feature of Bubbl.us that isn't so fantastic, is that the image is exported as a zip file instead of a jpg once the image reaches a certain size.  Unzipping reveals the image to be cut in half, requiring it be put back together by image manipulation software.

Only a small leap of imagination is required to conceive of some scenarios in which Bubbl.us would be beneficial to students in a classroom situation.  I've listed some examples below.

• Have students start by listing all the rules for the area of geometrical shapes using Bubbl.us as  scaffolding
• Students could work in small groups, taking turns at inputting the formula to ensure each student understands how the tool is used
• After an initial brainstorming, the class might participate in an activity using a smart whiteboard to build a 'whole class' version, checking to see if their group has listed all the rules and ensure they are correct
• Still working in groups, students are instructed to compare at the formulæ, analyse and link them together by similarities
• Next, students are required to expand their map to include 3 dimensional objects.  I, as their teacher continue to ensure that they're participating in true cooperative learning by taking turns, equal participation, etc.
• The necessary details are added to the whiteboard in a manner that promotes classroom participation, perhaps by offering a reward to students who are able to contribute accurate information
• Group work is finalised through the digital sharing of the list of rules made together among individual members of the group
• The student-created lists are then printed out and handed to their creator, who now has a self-made, permanent reference guide to the introduction of Euclidean geometry, resplendent with their own name at the top!
• Time allowing, students could then be shown a list of real and abstract objects on the whiteboard and asked to select the correct rules from the list in order to calculate area, volume, angles or to whatever the unit pertains.

Having never used a tool such as Bubbl.us, I was unsure about what its function actually was and how I might be able to introduce it into a classroom situation.  I wonder no more!  I believe that this would be a powerful tool and effective pedagogy due to the fact that learners have a significantly higher rate of retention when they are involved in the 'doing' of an activity, compared to simply reading, listening or viewing alone.