Kim NL1-Coggle
Since I am unfamiliar with almost all the tools listed for the Note Taking Challenge, I chose Coggle at random to take notes on chapter 1 of New Learning. I was impressed with the relative easy of use, and I was very appreciative of the sidebar which provided directions and shortcuts. The user guides posted on YouTube were also very helpful. I did struggle at first because of one major misconception: I thought new ideas would present as bubbles on the branches, but instead, once you are finished typing it just becomes a line of text above or below the branch line. While this often wasn't a big deal, it did limit how much text I could include. For instance, in an early incarnation of my coggle, I had places to put the definitions of key words; however, having entire definitions became really unwieldy, so I abandoned that plan. I appreciated that different branches could be color coded. For instance, in my knowledge processes branches, I coded different activities red or blue based on whether they were simpler or more complicated processes.
One of my frustration with this system is that everything is linear. Branches only come out horizontally from the node. Also branches or connections can't be made between each other like they could when we worked on the class popplet. On the coggle blog, the creators say they created coggle because they were frustrated with text documents where "you create a pseudo-hierarchical set of headings and subheadings, sections and subsections, forcing structure on something that still reads one paragraph after another." However, one of the things that struck me about coggle is that it does force you to create hierarchical connections because information can only be branched horizontally.
I think this horizontal hierarchy, though, could be useful in helping students plan essays. They could think through the relationships of main points, supporting points/ reasons and evidence. A drawback for this use is that students could only include a limited amount of text; however, this could also be a benefit because it would force students to condense ideas down into short words or phrases of their own which could help make sure they fully understand information they are including as opposed to just parroting information they've read back on the outline. I also like that is system is connected to Google because my school uses Gmail accounts, so students could easily have access.
This week I looked at Shantal's notes on New Learning Chapter 1 and Amy's notes on Brain Rules Chapter 1. Shantal's use of MindMeister produced a similar result to what I was able to create in Coggle. However, the customization feature she mentioned isn't available in Coggle, so it may have more capabilities. Like Coggle, MindMeister seems to limit a user to hierarchical organization and linear connection. One thing that I really liked that Shantal's notes emphasized in a way that mine didn't was the difference between learning and education, which I think is an important distinction to remember.
Amy's Glogster notes produced a wonderful end product that really helped me understand the key points of Brain Rules. I found the points about the skills our brain has evolved to complete and excel at to be very interesting. In terms of the notes themselves, I like the way the finished product integrates text, images and media. I also really like that the spacial layout allowed distinct points to be separated not only by headings, but by being placed on different parts of the page. To me as I read through her struggles with the program, I definitely agreed that it would take a lot of time and planning to have students use the program. The clear communication that the finished product allowed, however, made me think that if I got the hang of Glogster, it could be a way to produce material to show my students to highlight key points. That obviously takes away from some notions of active learning, but it could be an interesting way to present information that might be more memorable.
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Discussion of "Kim NL1-Coggle"
Response to Coggle
This seems like a promising advanced organizational tool, and I could see using it in my 1020 (English Composition II) class for an alternative to outlining. I agree with your observations that the linearity of the system does force us to think only in certain connective pathways, and I for one don't always make connections that way. But, as a visualizer that could perhaps be printed out and modified "old school," I think it's promising!Posted on 1 September 2014, 2:46 pm by Amy Locklear | Permalink
Coggle
Wow, This is a very different technology from the one that I worked with. I see the limitations regarding the hierarchical thinking. It is somewhat more visual than a document, but not significantly so. It makes me think that it would be a great tool for showing cause and effect or for building something like a family tree/heritage.Posted on 1 September 2014, 5:21 pm by Heather Laslie | Permalink
Shantal Comment on Kim NL1
I like how neatly this can summarize a chapter. This would be very useful for a quick review, and like you mentioned, Coggle and Mindmeister both use mindmaps that encourage users to summarize and create hierarchies. This map is very well organized and I will definitely look over it as we move on in class!Posted on 7 September 2014, 6:46 pm by ShantalFigueroa | Permalink
Shantal New Learning 1
I commented on two of my classmates' notes this week.
Brain Rules seems like an interesting read, and helpful for future teachers. I like the fact that everything comes from peer reviewed journals.
Posted on 7 September 2014, 7:15 pm by ShantalFigueroa | Permalink
Comment of Coggle
Like you, I found Coggle easy to use. It's good how the different topic are color coded. This gives the student a visual of the different topics.Posted on 14 September 2014, 5:03 pm by Kevin M. Norris | Permalink
thanks for testing/sharing
I've never used Coggle. I like the colors; however, I too want space and distrust the forced hierarchy.Posted on 24 September 2014, 10:48 am by Shelley Rodrigo | Permalink
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