Connecting minds

1. eTwinning Bruxelles 23-25/2/2007 Connecting minds History Makers Molecules A transferable experiment on collaborative reading, mediated by Knowledge Soups – Concept Maps in L2 Partenariate eTwinning formed by: Carlos Moreno Guallart and Carlos Ruiz, Colegio Santa María del Pilar - Marianistas, Zaragoza, Spain; Alfredo Tifi (Ideator) ITIS “Divini” San Severino Marche, Italy; Adriana Smorto, Istituto Socio Psico Pedagogico “S.ta Rosa da Viterbo”, Italy alfredo.tifi@gmail.com

2. eTwinning Bruxelles 23-25/2/2007 Connecting Minds is a WWMAPS project • World Wide Maps supports Collaborative Concept Mapping between groups of students and teachers from all the world • Multimedial and multilingual Concept maps can be used to share knowledge about every topic and to facilitate communication among different languages and cultures. See web: www.2wmaps.com

3. eTwinning Bruxelles 23-25/2/2007 How Concept Mapping helps e-Twinning: Collaborative Concept Mapping permits mediates facilitates Communication among different Languages Interdependence among partners ConceptualWidening Intercultural Exchange could be planned on Are e.g. Is going to be developed on has been developed on Italian - Spanish partners: Istituto Tecnico Ind.le “E. Divini” San Severino Marche (IT) Istituto Socio Psico Pedagogico Santa Rosa in Viterbo, Viterbo (IT) Colegio Santa María del Pilar – Marianistas, Zaragoza (ES) Other new welcomed partners How Molecules Changed History In 2006/07 Every other topic European Union In 2005/06 may beengaged on

4. eTwinning Bruxelles 23-25/2/2007 A Basic Model for Concept Mapping • Propositions have to be ternary, self-consistent and meaningful • Cmap has to be developed in function of answering a Focus Question… • …starting from the most inclusive (root) concept to the more specific and subordinated ones, in a pyramidal structure.

5. eTwinning Bruxelles 23-25/2/2007 Italian partners Carlos Moreno Guallart and1ªA B.to Colegio S.ta María del Pilar, Marianistas; Zaragoza Adriana Smorto and 4°B Ist. Magistrale Viterbo Spanish partner Alfredo Tifi and4°CH ITIS Divini San Severino M.

6. eTwinning Bruxelles 23-25/2/2007 Multilingual CM helps decision – strategy making for teachers planning of the activities • What students have to do: • Read a chapter about how some molecules have biased history • Select key affirmations and gather them in a shared “Knowledge Soup” • Pick up from the soup that claims that were published by other teammates and fit them in a shared Concept Map • Enrich the C-map with images, links to web resources ecc.

7. eTwinning Bruxelles 23-25/2/2007 A shared CM helped groups formation

8. eTwinning Bruxelles 23-25/2/2007 Reading from “Napoleon’s Buttons, how 17 molecules changed History”Penny le Couter and Jay Burreson It is assumed that Arab traders introduced pepper to Europe, initially by the ancient spice routes that led through Damascus and across the Red Sea. Pepper was known in Greece by the fifth century B.C. At that time its use was medicinal rather than culinary, frequently as an anti-dote to poison. The Romans, however, made extensive use of pepper and other spices in their food. By the first century A.D., over half the imports to the Mediterranean from Asia and the east coast of Africa were spices, with pepper from In-dia accounting for much of this. Spices were used in food for two rea-sons: as a preservative and as a flavor enhancer. The city of Rome was large, transportation was slow, refrigeration was not invented, and the problem of obtaining fresh food and keeping it fresh must have been enormous. Consumers had only their noses to help them detect food that was off; “best before” labels were centuries in the future. Pep-per and other spices disguised the taste of rotten or rancid fare and probably helped slow further decay. The taste of dried, smoked, and salted food could also be made more palatable by a heavy use of these seasonings. By medieval times much European trade with the East was conducted through Baghdad (in modern Iraq) and then to Constantinople (now is

9. eTwinning Bruxelles 23-25/2/2007 Constructing claims from excerpts • A “Claim” is a simple affirmation, formed by a [Concept1]--linking phrase [Concept 2] ternary structure. • This step is not as so easy as it seems, because it implies a) to elicit concepts and relations, b) to decide which concepts are subordinated to which and c) to choose the way to “quantify” the former, i.e. how to cluster attributes and to create compound concepts. • We believe this helps meaningful reading and learning of students. Arab traders introduced pepper to Europe...led through Damascus and across the Red Sea Pepper was introduced to Europe by Arab traders Pepper passed across Damascus and the Red Sea

10. eTwinning Bruxelles 23-25/2/2007 Collaborative team working • Sharing claims with “Knowledge Soup” • Working to the shared c-map (with two rules to foster interdependence: 1. Students must pick up propositions and concepts from the soup and cannot add them directly to the c-map; 2. only claims published by other students can be validated and fitted in the c-map). • Opening - Replying Discussion Threads • Enhanced concept mapping: adding other resources.

11. eTwinning Bruxelles 23-25/2/2007 Groups work is coordinated in this Dokeos platform: www.divini.net/dc/courses/HMM/

12. eTwinning Bruxelles 23-25/2/2007 Added value for e-twinning • Transferability (to any other interesting book or shared source); • Applied training for teachers on high value technologies for world wide collaboration • Possibilities of supporting intensive training online courses on these methodologies for educational institutions • Possibilities to find other partners world wide besides us, to apply the same methodology in different topics • Possibility to experiment in educational research about Collaborative Concept Mapping and related matters.