TE year1sourcebook/year1 unit2 Topics of Study in the Unit

Creation of concept maps

Concept maps can be an effective way of creating a textual resource that can be organized graphically, in the form of a map or tree of ideas; it provides a pictorial overview of the concepts, related concepts / sub-concepts for a topic. In the map, you can link to additional resources, add annotations, graphically organize ideas through links etc.

Concepts acquire power and meaning when they are connected to other concepts. Hence, organizing the concepts relevant to your topic is an important first step of generic resource creation. Concept mapping can be used to build skills in students for ideating and organizing ideas; you can use it for your teaching. It is a great tool to help organize your thought processes when writing.

Freeplane is a FOSS application that can be used to create concept maps (image ); in this section you will learn to use of Freeplane.

What is a concept map?

Close your eyes and think of a word. For example think about the word plant. Now think of all the words that that come into your mind when you think about the word plant. List these words in your notebook.

Some of the common thoughts/words that would come into mind when thinking about plants are: PLANT, WATER, PHOTOSYNTHESIS, LEAF, FLOWER, ROOT, STEM, SOIL, SUNLIGHT, CARBONDIOXIDE

These words have meaning that can be pictured in the mind. These words can be called concept words. Concept is a way of describing a word that can be pictured in the mind. It is also any thought, idea, belief, picture or image that is formed in the mind when we think of a word or topic. For example, one concept for plant is that it is a living thing.

Learning to use Freeplane

Freeplane is a free and open source software application that helps you create and edit concept maps, as a generic resource creation.

You can learn Freeplane here, with the following functionalities

Creating a map

You should first develop a concept map for any topic you want to develop a resource on. The ideas you have about the topic, the sequencing of ideas and sub concepts, the specific points for each idea / sub-concept can be developed on the map. Links between nodes, with web pages, notes explaining concepts can all be inserted in the concept map. The power of the digital concept map is that you can keep revising the nodes, adding and deleting, moving and copying nodes as you want. This makes the process quite dynamic. Once you have completed your concept map you can share it with your classmates for feedback with which you can refine the concept map still further.

Inserting nodes

To learn working with Freeplane, we will start by creating a concept map for Digital Story Telling; you will see, when you opened Freeplane that the application has opened a window with a box with text "New mindmap". This node, also called the "root node" will contain the core idea/ theme of the resource. Additional ideas are added by adding more nodes, called child nodes. The concept map gets built by adding further child nodes, for topics and sub-topics. Use the ‘insert’ key to create a ‘child node’ this is a sub-concept of your current concept. Use the ‘enter’ key to create a ‘sibling’ this is a parallel concept to your current concept. Thus you can create a concept map (image 9) with knowing just two functions – add child node (insert) and add sibling node (enter).

Hyperlinking files and weblinks

You can embed a hyper-link on a node, such that clicking that node will open a page on the Internet or a file on your computer (image 11). This connects a node on your map to related resources you may want the reader to access. You can also use the keyboard short cut CTRL-K. Freeplane will open an input bar (image 11), in which you can type in our web page address.

Adding notes and note window

To add a note, you can click on the node, go to View--->Notes--->Display note panel; this will open a window in which you can type your notes (image 13). You can change the position and size of this note window.

Saving the file

By default your concept map is saved by Freeplane as a '.mm' format file (image 16). However, the concept map can be saved in many other formats. You can export the map to a text document file (in .odt or .doc formats). You can also export the map as an image (in .png or .jpeg formats) or as a web page (in .html format)(image 17). We will discuss how you can use this image in the next chapter. The images below show you how to save and export concept maps in Freeplane. While saving the file, Freeplane will display the file browser, to allow you to select the folder in which you can save your file. By default, the file is saved in your home folder.

You should make concept mapping a habit. It is a wonderful way to document your ideas, and keep ideating, iterating as you think / document.

Text editing

Objectives

1. Understanding that text is also data and can be combined with other formats
2. Using a text editor as a method of recording, editing and presenting data
3. Understanding that concept map and text document can be combined

You will use the FOSS Office Suite application called LibreOffice Writer (LibreOffice Writer) to create a text document. Open LibreOffice Writer on your computer, through Applications → Office – LibreOffice Writer (image 18).

Entering and formatting text

You can enter text by simply typing into this document.

UNICODE font

In the case of languages which use a script other than Latin, you must choose only UNICODE font for the text entry. Non-UNICODE fonts are likely to not render correctly on a web page. This is not an issue in case of the Latin script, used by English, French and many other languages.

Formatting text

You can format your text in many ways either through Format--->Text (image 21) or Format--->Character (image 22) or by changing the parameters on the tool bar. Click on the Format menu option of LibreOffice Writer to see the options. Commonly used formatting includes selecting text to highlight it through the ‘bold’ ‘italic’ or ‘underline’ functions (image 24), changing the font color or size and adding text highlighting. All these functionalities are also available on the tool bar.

Inserting a numbered list

You may be making a list of items in your document. Instead of manually entering the numbers, you could use automatic numbering.

You can select Format → Bullets and Numbering and select the numbering type you want (image 26).

Inserting a table / box item

You may want to put a specific information inside a box to highlight it separately. You can also use box to provide additional information. You can select Table. Select number of rows and number of columns as ‘1’. You will get a box (which is nothing but a table with one row and one column). Enter your text in this box.

Inserting a hyper-link

You can provide a hyper link in your text document to a web page. Clicking this link in the text document will open the web page (this requires internet connectivity). Inserting hyper links in relevant places in your text document (image 30), allows you to lead the reader to web resources that supplement or complement the information you are providing in your text OER document. This way you need not provide information that is already publicly available, and instead focus on information or a perspective that is not available, in your document.

Insert footer (automatic page numbers)

It is useful to have page number and name of your document on every page, this is specially useful if the reader wants to read a print copy. LibreOffice Writer allows you to easily insert this information at the bottom or top of each page. This can be done using Insert--->Footer (image 31). Once a footer has been inserted, you can go to the bottom of the page and insert multiple fields of information using Insert--->Fields (image 32). You can type any text in this footer, it will come on all pages. Other than page number, other dynamic information you can provide is the date/time stamp of the document. A similar method can also be adopted for inserting a header as well. Page numbers can also be inserted directly using Insert--->Page Number.

Continuing editing your text document

You can re-open this file any time to continue editing your text document using LibreOffice Writer. You can add, move, modify and remove text. You can format your text in different ways. In this way, you can keep enhancing your text OER on your topic regularly. This is an important difference

Power of digital text editing

You have seen that text is another form of data and text can be organized in different ways using different tools.

• When text is entered digitally, it can be edited easily.
• Text can be copied, pasted and formatted differently. Some features like copy-paste are available across most applications whereas some features of formatting are specific to some applications.
• A "plain text" editor like gedit allows simple entry of text, copying, cutting and pasting of text and is linear. It is purely text and no images can be added.
• But most text editors have more features. A text editor like LibreOffice Writer allows text to be entered, formatted and presented in different ways and designed for printing. The text document also can add links to other files or resources on the computer or the internet. It is the most advanced tool available for creating textual outputs.
• The concept map allows text to be represented and connected in a graphic way. A concept map also can add links to other files or resources on the computer or the internet. Nodes can be copied, pasted. Text in the nodes can be copied or pasted.
• In addition to this, presentation software, such as LibreOffice Impress is also available which allows combining text and images as well as embedding of videos to make a multimedia presentation.

Combining audio, print and images to tell a story

One of the most important advantages of OER is the possibility of creating resources in multiple formats - images being one of them. Images can be used standalone, or in a sequence as an animation, or in combination with text to create picture stories for communication. With increasing use of ICT, creating, editing and remixing image resources is becoming more and more prevalent. Availability of free and open source tools for creation and re-purposing of image resources can help the greater creation, re-purposing and publishing of image and animation OERs.

Inserting images in a text document (LibreOffice Writer)

One of the ways of making OER powerful and high quality is by suitably integrating multiple resource formats. Images can be embedded / inserted into a text document. The image and the related text enhance the value of the other in the document. select Insert → Image. LibreOffice Writer will open the file browser. Use file browser to select the image file of your concept map. The image will be inserted in your text document as shown (image 13).

you can add images to a text document. In the video, we have added text and image as well. It is also possible to provide links and references to an audio / video file in a text document to provide a multimedia experience to the reader. There is an important difference between images and audio/video when integrating with a text document. While an image is embedded within the text document, an audio or video file resides out of the text document in a file folder and is separately accessed to play. This is done by inserting a hyper-link to the audio file or video file in your computer, to the document. Clicking on this link will access the audio/ video and play it, using the audio/video player. While publishing on a web page, it is possible for different formats to be displayed on a single page. We saw earlier that file links and hyper links can be added to a text document; we use the same approach to link an audio/ video.

Steps in creating a personal resource folder

There are several steps in creating a resource folder.

1. Make a folder on the computer by topic
2. Create a 'meta' document which will provide your thoughts on the topic and link the resources you have collected to these thoughts
3. Access relevant resources from Internet
4. Save pages, images, videos
5. Insert into document
6. Copy links of the resources you find useful, and which you would like to refer to in your document
7. Paste / insert links into document
8. Add your own comments, suggestions in the meta document, and connect the resources accessed and shared, with your ideas to create a resource document on the selected topic.
9. Format the document

Personal Digital Library

A personal digital library can store information on different topics of interest to you. It is 'personal' meaning it is available on your own computer, for your use any time. It is 'digital' it is available in a digital format, which is easy to edit, store and share. Most importantly, it is a 'library' meaning the digital resources are organised meaningfully, for you to easily access information when you want it.

The set of resources downloaded in your folders for the given topic, along with your 'meta document' constitutes your personal digital library for the topic. You can build such libraries on any topic you are interested in, and build your own knowledge in a structured manner. Since the internet has resources on almost all topics, you have an opportunity to keep learning, that too on topics of your interest. The topic or area need not be only one of theoretical interest or only to build your knowledge. You can also work on building skills since there are likely to be videos available for helping you learn a new language, or even a skill like swimming. You can also share this personal digital library with your colleagues so that they can also benefit. When teachers share their personal digital libraries / resources from their library with their colleagues, cumulatively, it creates a resource rich environment. Try creating a personal digital library on a topic or issue you have always wanted to learn about.