Team MindMapping with Coggle
Team MindMapping in a Socially-Distanced Classroom using Coggle.
Mindmap tools help stduents & teachers to connect ideas, synthesize a large volume of information, explore relationships between concepts, think creatively, and retain information.
This strategy gives students a structure to summarise and represent visually what they have learned. It improves long-term memory of factual information.
Coggle challenges students to organie their ideas visually while also promoting collaboration among students and teachers. These features help students discover important connections that can lead to a better understanding of content.
After teaching a topic, Coggle (or similar) could be used to summarise, organise and visualise the topic.
Coggle is a MindMapping tool which also allows students to share ideas in virtual groups in real-time.
Key Skills
Managing information and thinking
Managing myself
Communicating
Being literate
Being creative
Working with others
Required Resources
In the Classroom setting
Coggle account. (Trial version is sufficient & students do not necessarily need an account. Teachers and students can login using Google / ETB account)
Teacher PC / Laptop
Data Projector
Students: Mobile phones, tablets or chrome books.
Online Teaching & Learning
Coggle account. (Trial version is sufficient & students do not necessarily need an account. Teachers and students can login using Google / ETB account)
Teacher PC / Laptop
GoogleMeet
Students: Mobile phones, tablets or chrome book.
The Technology: Coggle
Coggle is an online tool for creating and sharing mindmaps.
It provides a collaborative workspace where students can share ideas, solve problems, and communicate complex information.
This tool can aid students to take notes, brainstorm ideas, visualize connections across concepts, and collaborate in virtual teams.
The site is very intuitive and has a concise but informative self-guided tour. Coggle's blog, Bloggle, provides answers to frequently asked questions.
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Coggle requires a Google account log-on. Staff and students can sign up using their ETB Google e-mail account. If students are signing up / logging in with a smart phone, remind them to change account from personal their G-mail to their school G-mail.
A Google Chrome extension is also available.
There are three pricing plans: Free, Awesome, and Organization. All three plans offer unlimited public diagrams, access to images and icons, export options (pdf, jpg, text, .mm), and embeddable diagrams.
How to use Coggle: Instructional Videos.
Coggle Tutorial
Do more with Coggles
Using Coggle.it with Google Classroom
Classroom Approaches / Strategies
Team Mindmapping / Collaborating in Virtual Groups
Team MindMapping could be used as a brainstorming exercise to:
summarise prior knowledge at the beginning of a topic,
review learning
or to plan an answer / essay.
Step 1 - Setting-up
Before class, login to www.coggle.it and prepare a sample mind-map to show as an example to the students. Show this to the whole class using a data projector and demonstrate its features.
You could also show the instructional videos shown above to demonstrate the features of Coggle.
Each student will go to www.coggle.it on their device / smartphone
They should login / create a Coggle account using their ETB email account. Click "Login with Google" when prompted. Select a free plan.
Once the students have a Coggle account it can be used in as many subjects as they wish.
Step 2 - Creating a personal Coggle
Once logged in, students are in the Coggle work space.
Ask students to click "create" (private diagram)
Ask students to create a mind-map on the chosen topic.
Students can add a number of headings / nodes and add points under each heading to create their own mind map.
Step 3 - Collaborating in Virtual Groups.
Divide students into virtual pairs / groups / teams.
(During curent restrictions, paired / grouped students will be in close proximity while maintaining required 1m distance.)
Appoint a team co-coordinator.
Students are set a problem, question or topic which they discuss.
(Discussions will be noisy with masks!)
The team coordinator will create a Coggle. He/she will then share the Coggle with other members of the group using the share button (+) on the top right of the Coggle work space.
Other team members will receive a link in their school e-mail account.
Once each member has linked to the Coggle, the can now begin inputting their ideas. Other members of the team / group will be able to see this in real-time.
Once completed, each team member can download the Coggle as a PDF. Alternatively, another team-member could present their Coggle to report findings to the class.
These answers will form the basis of a more detailed discussion in order to arrive at a solution to the question.
Junior Cycle for Teachers Resource
Points to Note / Alternative Approaches.
Alternative approaches and uses for Coggle:
Note-taking during class. Students can use Coggle to create visually memorable notes and focus on making connections between ideas.
Reading comprehension. Students create a mind-map before class, based on their reading. Coggle also has a presentation mode: students can pull up their maps and share them with the class. Alternatively, make the Coggle map an assignment after several weeks of readings. Students could use it to form connections across readings and ideas.
Formative Assessment. Gauging emerging awareness of student perspectives. It can be difficult to track such thinking or awareness and it can also be difficult to tease out that thinking from what students articulate. A Coggle map can help visualize thought processes, decisions and connections students make.
Peer assessment can be used where students could give each other feedback on areas they may have left out or need to be improved in their mind maps. Students are divided into pairs. Each pair shares their Coggle with their partner who will see a live version of the mind-map. He / she may add peer feedback or further ideas.
Student Presentations. Rather than a traditional PowerPoint presentation, Coggle can be used as a visual aid for student presentations. In a lock-down scenario they can either share through Google Classroom or present & talk about their mind-map using the "Present" function on GoogleMeet.
For more about presentation mode in Coggle, click HERE.
Coggle as an Exit Ticket: At the end of class, ask students to map their learning from the day. This can help us to identify points of confusion and understanding.
Making Cross-Curricular Links: Ask students to create Coggle maps connecting their learning across different subjects. A mindmap can help them make connections across different specifications and syllabi.
For example - looking at soils across Biology (Ecology), Geography (geological processes, soil formation & Geoecology, agricultural economy etc ) and Agricultural Science ( soil composition, biological & chemical properties, fertility etc).
Students can also use Coggle to connect learning to real-world applications outside the classroom.
Points to note:
We can assess student understanding of a topic.
Peer assessment and feedback can give students the opportunity to improve their mind-maps.
Examples
Examples of real-time collaboration using Coggle.
Common Agricultural Policy - 6th Year Geography
Key Themes in Romeo and Juliet using Coggle. Each person in the virtual team was given a theme to work on. - 3rd Year English