From Concept Maps to Motivation

Jun 26, 2014 • Greg Wilson

Group 10 had its second meeting yesterday, during which we looked at lots of interesting concept maps and talked a bit about motivation—or rather, about the importance not demotivating our learners. For our next meeting, I’ve asked everyone to:

  1. Write a short blog post (2-4 paragraphs) about an incident in your educational history that completely demotivated you—something that made you lose interest in a subject—and then add a paragraph or two discussing what could have been done to prevent or correct the problem.
  2. Prepare a two-minute pitch (preferably shorter: 90 seconds is a good target) to convince your audience that they really, really want to learn some subject that you choose. The pitch shouldn’t try to teach the subject; instead, it should persuade people that it’s going to help them do things they actually care about.

You will each give your pitch live online when we next meet (which will probably be Tuesday July 8, rather than Wednesday July 9, because I’m travelling on the latter date). You can either talk directly at your webcam, or screenshare a slide deck or some live coding. To help you practice your pitch, I am putting you into pairs; I’d like each pair to introduce themselves to each other by email, then find a time when you can connect online to try out your pitches on one another.

  • Chelsea Chisholm and Paulina Lach
  • Kara Woo and Mark Betnel
  • Clare Sloggett and Scott Ritchie
  • Jeff Walton and Mark Laufersweiler
  • Luiz Irber and Tom Wright
  • Tim Bean and Dominic Barraclough
  • Marcello Barisonzi and Kaitlin Thaney
  • Daisie Huang and Sarah Edwards
  • Sarah Simpkin and Amanda Harlin
  • Easton White and James Robinson
  • Luca Cerone and Leonor Garcia-Gutierrez
  • Jane Lewis and Klemens Noga
  • Jennifer Shelton and Joseph Viviano
  • Emily Coffey and Jesus Ballasteros
  • Francisco Palm and Andy Leung
  • Rainer Kiko and Johnny Lin
  • Aaron Ehrlich and David Kua
  • Brian Forst and Lisa Ballard
  • Xu Fei and Maciej Czuchry
  • Ana Malagon and Scott Talafuse

I look forward to seeing you all in a couple of weeks.

Software Carpentry Instructor Training Group 10
Meeting 2: Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Notes

  • Read chapter 3 of How Learning Works
  • Blog post: an example of how you were de-motivated and how it could have been fixed.
  • Authentic task: 90-120 second motivation talk for an authentic task,
    • select your target audience, tell group who the audience is at the start
    • practice presenting online (no feedback)
    • will be paired with partner (in similar timezone) to practice talk, practice giving feedback
    • Generate a ‘group’ concept map to understand others approach (understanding) of the problem
  • Intrinsic motivation (I want to do this for my reasons) vs. extrinsic motivation (someone told me to, some moral obligation, etc.)
    • Both work to get people through a final test, but extrinsic doesn’t work to make material stick
    • Extrinsic motivation doesn’t stick, forget material learned to pass an exam
  • If students approach a course with intrinsic motivation the obligation of the teacher is to NOT demotivate them
  • Factors affecting motivation: talking down to students, believing the material is too hard, etc. demotivates students
  • Authentic task (Mark Guzdial and Barbara Ericson): use a task that could be part of a real situation, e.g. thumbnailing images, plotting data. Use of an authentic task creates intrinsic motivation

10:00 Eastern

  • Greg Wilson (Mozilla, Toronto)
  • Chelsea Chisholm (CMEC/Denmark, alpine hut/Switzerland (currently)): http://teaching.software-carpentry.org/2014/06/18/concept-map-subsetting-in-r/
    • It took about an hour, most of the time just thinking about a clear way to link all the pieces in a coherent manner.
    • That no matter how simple the concept, there are always so many specifics that you can add in. I suppose this taught me that determining exactly what is appropriate for your audience is important (how many conceptual links to add in, and which ones are important to highlight for non-experts that allow them to know where they can explore the material more in depth in the future.
    • For teaching and learning, I would say yes. It allowed me to focus my thinking on the core concepts and branch from there, and that organization would likely help in any situation. I would use this in the future, and have attended a class as a student where this was employed before, with great results.
  • Kara Woo (NCEAS / Pullman, WA) http://teaching.software-carpentry.org/2014/06/17/concept-map-subversion/
    • It took me about 15 minutes to come up with a first pass at my concept map, but I spent a lot of time tweaking it (probably a couple hours).
    • Mapping out my topic helped me compare it to other related topics (git/mercurial, in my case).
    • Simpler is better! Organization of the concept maps also made a huge difference in how easily I could understand them.
    • It was a very useful exercise for me, and I think it would be time-effective especially if I could convince myself to stop writing new drafts when it was really basically done already.
  • Paulina Lach ( AGH UST, Cracow, Poland ) http://teaching.software-carpentry.org/2014/06/24/basic-data-types-in-python/
    • 5 — 10 minutes, but a few hours of thinking about how to do it
    • what I learned: even as short topic can be hard to be explained well in 5 minutes
    • yes, it is effective technique for preparing myself for topic; it’s seems to be more for me than for others
  • Clare Sloggett (Uni of Melbourne, Australia) http://teaching.software-carpentry.org/2014/06/17/concept-map-python-dicts/
    • had a couple of tries and went with the second. The actual map didn’t take long to draw (10 min?); concepts seemed to fall out naturally
    • organised my ideas on the topic, though probably didn’t get much new
    • learned a lot about concept maps from looking at mine and others. I hadn’t read Appendix B (or looked at others’) before doing mine so it didn’t occur to me to label the edges, which I think is much better if the goal is to summarise information
    • Depends on the purpose — for teaching yes, for learning I am not sure.
  • Jeff Walton (Paul Smith’s College, NY) http://teaching.software-carpentry.org/2014/06/18/concept-map-unix-shell/
    • It took a while (a few hours) to get started. Most was learning concept mapping.
    • Learned the topic was more that a short lesson and that I don’t know the connections very well
    • Concept mapping seems like a good technique to explore all the aspects of the topic before jumping into the actual lesson material
  • Mark Betnel (Seattle Academy, WA) — http://teaching.software-carpentry.org/2014/06/19/concept-map-handling-physical-quantities/ (also no microphone today, and may need to step out a few minutes early)
    • spent about 90 minutes thinking about it over a week, 20 minutes to make it, probably a little shorter next time, but largely depends on topic
    • definitely helped to map out what I thought was important, and about how to convey it
    • I realized that I think the map is much more for the teacher than for the student, more useful for student _after_ a lesson
    • yes — time effective, but depends on context. For a largish topic, definitely worthwhile, but for a single 5-10 minutes lesson, no, unless you plan to give it many times
  • Mark Laufersweiler (OU Libraries, Norman, OK) http://teaching.software-carpentry.org/?p=4092
    • 25 minutes first time
    • for my example, a little bit
    • Learned quite a bit about concept maps, no comments but was late posting (cheated by using my map from previous course)
    • Yes, and have been using this at work effectively.
  • Luiz Irber (MSU, East Lansing, MI) http://teaching.software-carpentry.org/2014/06/19/concept-map-ci/
    • Two minutes for final version, some hours to understand how to do it
    • I don’t think I learned much, but it helped to organize how to teach it. Since it is a big topic I would show a minimum viable CI script and what each part does, linking to the concept map.
    • There are different ways of doing it, and after I saw some I would redo some things in mine. I really liked some more ‘graphical’ ones, with drawings.
    • Yes! Sometimes it is hard to explain how things connect on a table or a presentation, and I chose a topic with some big concepts.
  • Tom Wright (SickKids, Toronto) http://teaching.software-carpentry.org/2014/06/16/concept-map-video-manipulation-with-matlab/
    • took a couple of hours, probably about 90 minutes to create this actual map
    • Got a much better idea of how to break up the subject, helped me format my own existing thoughts.
    • In general observed there were many different approaches, from the more ‘flow chart’ style to an ‘idea map / brain storm’
    • Yes time effective, should make creating the rest of the lesson much quicker.
    • I think a concept map could get much too complex for any larger topic, probably needs to be addressed at several scales.http://teaching.software-carpentry.org/2014/06/19/concept-map-ci/
  • Tim Bean (Humboldt State, California) http://teaching.software-carpentry.org/2014/06/17/concept-map-for-loops-3/
    • About fifteen minutes, most of the time was spent considering layout. I picked a straightforward concept, so I didn’t
    • Learn much about it. I think these are great tools for teaching

14:00 Eastern

  • Greg Wilson (Mozilla, Toronto)
  • Marcello Barisonzi (CERN, Montréal) http://teaching.software-carpentry.org/2014/06/18/concept-map-python-dictionaries-2/
    • one hour while falling asleep to think about the concept, 15 minutes to do it
    • I made the map from a topic I knew already, sort of an aid for a possible lecture. It helped me remember things I could have forgotten
    • I knew about UML diagrams, which can be useful for planning and brainstorming, so it’s not a new concept. The comments were very useful
    • I think it’s a very good technique
    • bubble, then link to another bubble, but I had picture in mind
  • Dominic Barraclough (upstate NY) http://teaching.software-carpentry.org/?p=7673
    • 15minutes — the time to make another map will depend on how much I’m learning as I go along
    • Not a lot new about the issue — its stuff I’ve been thinking about for quite along time — I think that I may have learned about how to present the stuff
    • adding tags to connects is very useful — it draws people along
    • for me its cost effective — I can’t really work any other way
  • Daisie Huang (UBC Vancouver, but currently at iEvoBio in Raleigh: may have to leave early for conference stuff) http://teaching.software-carpentry.org/?p=7730
    • About 15 minutes; it would probably depend on what the topic is
    • I don’t know if I learned anything specific about the topic; I think mostly because it was already something I’d thought through in explaining it verbally to someone before.
    • I think I learned that the idea of concept mapping can vary widely depending on the topic being taught: it might actually be a difficult technique if the topic is already very structured.
    • It is certainly a helpful and quick technique for visualizing what one thinks one is teaching vs what is actually being learned.
  • Sarah Simpkin (University of Ottawa) http://teaching.software-carpentry.org/2014/06/16/concept-map-geojson-structure/ ** Will have to leave at 2:30 unfortunately
    • Took about 20 minutes (had to read over GeoJSON spec while designing it!). Made some drafts before drawing my final version (total: 45 mins to an hour). Would probably be a little faster the second time. After seeing some of the other concept maps, I think I should have structured it more like ideas I’d want to convey in a lesson, not just how the files are structured. Didn’t answer the “why?” question! I learned about some of the distinctions between object types in GeoJSON. Yes, would try again for future planning, especially having seen the other examples.
  • Easton White (University of California- Davis) — http://teaching.software-carpentry.org/2014/06/19/concept-map-glms-in-r/
    • It took me about an hour to think about the concept map and then only 10-15 minutes to draw the map itself. I felt the most important part was labeling the bubbles and links between them properly. This helped me explain the logical flow of how I was thinking about the topic. I feel the concept map approach is extremely useful for some topics compared to others.
  • James Robinson (University of Victoria) — http://teaching.software-carpentry.org/2014/06/19/concept-map-2/
    • About 10 minutes to make the map, and 15 minutes thinking about the problem. Depending on the task, might take longer for topics that I’m not as familiar with, or very quick for tasks in R that I carry out each day.
    • I learnt about different applications of plyr — dlply etc. — that I don’t normally use
    • Wish I had used more colours/shapes in my map to communicate different processes — I saw others with clever designs that were easier to interpret. And I would have thought about the design a bit more before starting to draw the basic structure.
    • Definitely a time effective technique — I used these all the time to revise for my high school and undergraduate exams. Not sure why I stopped using them!
  • Sarah Edwards (BBN, in Los Angeles today) http://teaching.software-carpentry.org/2014/06/17/how-to-ssh-with-a-private-key/
    • Not sure how long, but awhile (on the order of an hour). Probably half as long to do it again.
    • I got a better idea of how to break down the pieces of the problem to explain it. I picked the topic because it’s something I had already been thinking about.
    • I like the idea of putting the description of the connection on the line. I think that helps make the technique much more effective.
    • I think this was useful and effective because this is a topic I explain a lot and never feel like my answer is satisfactory. Also other topics might be more straightforward and therefore faster.
  • Luca Cerone (IDIBELL, Barcelona) http://teaching.software-carpentry.org/2014/06/16/concept-map-importing-data-in-r/
    • it took about 30min to make, I expect a second one to take the same
    • not much about that specific topic
    • I think I learnt that things that are obvious to other can be pretty obscure to me (about topics I never heard about)
    • I think it helps you lay down what you know about a specific topic and get a better idea of what you want to teach, why and how, so yes I think it is pretty time effective
  • Leonor Garcia-Gutierrez (University of Warwick,UK) — http://teaching.software-carpentry.org/2014/06/16/concept-map-object-oriented-programming/
    • The concept map took about 1.5-2 hours of thinking (I would say about 1 hour reading about what a concept map is, 0.5-1 hour to gather my thoughts on the content), then 15-30 min to draw.
    • I am not sure I learned anything new about the topic, but I did become more aware of the relationships between concepts.
    • I learned that concept-mapping accepts many different styles, and it can present ideas in a non-linear way, but it is important to have arrows and/or tags on links to give hints on how to read it and what it means.
    • I think it is an useful tool to teach a topic and I think it is time effective, but only if it is drawn at the same time that the topic is explained, otherwise it can be a bit overwhelming.
  • Jane Lewis (UoR, UK) http://teaching.software-carpentry.org/2014/06/16/concept-map-version-control/
    • It took about 15-20mins to do, first sketch was pretty much all I wanted but messy so I had to draw it again. Most thought was how to express the problem.
    • Not much!
    • Not a lot!
    • Probably but depends on context.
  • Catherine McGoveran (University of Ottawa) http://teaching.software-carpentry.org/2014/06/13/concept-map-basic-html-structure/ ** Will have to leave at 2:30
    • I spent about 15 minutes to do the concept map, a bit more if I include the time it took to think about what concept I wanted to map. I think the next time I do this it would be much easier — it really does depend on the topic and it will likely always take a few drafts to get the structure and flow both accurate and logical.
    • Not everything is best depicted in a concept map and it can be difficult to determine the level of detail required for a map, particularly in relation to the time available to teach it.
    • It’s valuable to get the feedback from others who may be new to the subject of the concept map — jargon can be a big challenge and simplicity is key.
    • I do think it’s time effective and will likely use this exercise to organize teaching and when teaching to clearly visualize certain concepts.
  • Klemens Noga (ACC Cyfronet AGH, Krakow, Poland) http://teaching.software-carpentry.org/2014/06/18/concept-map-issue-tracking-system/
    • It took about 30 minutes to 1 hour, but mostly it was due to thinking about topic of concept map. I’ve to do it seveal times to get it quite right. I think that now it would take me smaller amount of time (of course it depends on the topic of map and my knowledge about it)
    • I probalby haven’t acquired new knowledge but definitely have to think about how things are connected
    • I’ve learned that very important is to have got quite deep understanding of topic to make good map. Futhermore:
      • Map cannot be to dense (it is better to do several concept maps on various level of scope that put to much on one big diagram)
      • Simpler is better
    • yes, it is very useful. You could get feedback quite easily and quickly
  • Kenneth Daily (NCI, Bethesda, MD) — http://teaching.software-carpentry.org/2014/06/18/concept-map-ggplot-a-scatter-plot/ (no microphone today!)
  • Amanda Harlin (Univ. of Oklahoma + Techlahoma, Oklahoma) http://teaching.software-carpentry.org/2014/06/18/content-map-build-systems-workflow/
    • I took about an hour to think of the topics in a suitable 5-10 minute explanation and 10 minutes to draw out the concept map. Next time I think the time would be shortened based on mastery of connecting nodes on the subject, mentally
    • It’s a rough concept map that I redid twice. I really like the topic, so I was pertty familiar with it. Not a master on build systems, but I do use/configure them. Concept maps are totally new to me though. Next time I’ll do a more normal radial concept map rather than a tree.
    • The comments were great. It’s helpful to get a second glance for those who don’t know tech jargon so i can better translate the content.
    • This was a really good format to share knowledge quickly and get feedback within days, especially having a snippet of text to accompany the concept map as well to further communicate the idea. This felt more like preparing for a lightning talk. Concept mapping seemed like the typical images explaining rest or mvc concepts visually, but the teaching would still be necessary
    • This felt more like preparing for a lightning talk. Concept mapping seemed like the typical images explaining rest or mvc concepts visually, but the teaching would still be necessary
  • David Merand (University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg) http://teaching.software-carpentry.org/?p=2988
    • about 30 minutes or so. Spent some time tryin g to figure out how to begin
    • To redo would be uicker next time
    • Learnt that one needs to be very clear in the words and concepts used
    • Yes it was an effective way to clarify my thinking, not sure if it would be that effective as a teaching approach
  • Jennifer Shelton (K-INBRE Bioinformatics Core, KS) http://teaching.software-carpentry.org/2014/06/18/concept-map-common-ngs-file-formats/
    • I thought it helped me to think about the most direct way to describe file formats in a way that builds off of common interests or experiences with these formats for biologists that are coding novices
    • I learned that a concept map for my topic also clearly diagrams why some argue that we should drop redundant formats
    • It was more difficult than I thought it would be
    • I think it would have its limits but it seems like an effective way to connect new knowledge to prior knowledge for major topics
  • Emily Coffey (McGill U, Montreal, Canada) http://teaching.software-carpentry.org/?p=7830
    • I apparently saved but didn’t press the publish button last week, apologies.
    • 15 mins, I think it would take less time with practice, but more time for more complex things. I think it is a very good idea (in teaching and programming) to think it through before you start developing material.
    • that it is important to define the edges of what you can teach in a short period of time — what you’re not going to cover
    • Unfortunately I only had a draft up and missed the publish button, but I’ll check back soon. I am not too sure if I created the desired thing.
    • yes, probably useful for most applications. For a complex lesson it might get complicated.
  • Joseph Viviano (York U / CAMH, Toronto CA) http://teaching.software-carpentry.org/2014/06/16/concept-map-basic-data-types/#comments
    • The creation of the concept map took about 15 minutes, but that excludes meditating on the topic beforehand. I think it would take a similar amount of time to do again.
    • Concept mapping taught me how few concepts one can fit under ~7. It helped me learn how to constrain a topic for discussion.
      • I.e., it helped me chunk.
    • I learned how we all approach similar topics very differently — what I thought was an obvious topic was often confusing or unknown to other competent practitioners.
    • I think this is a pretty effective technique, especially for reviewing other people’s work!
  • Francisco Palm (Universidad de Los Andes, Mérida, Venezuela) http://teaching.software-carpentry.org/2014/06/18/concept-map-python-virtual-environments/
    • Took me sometime to decide the issue, after that I make a draft, it was really quickly, 5 minutes, more or less. Then I draw a final version, that was 15-20 min.
      • I think the second concept map would take a little less but essentialy the same.
    • Making the concept map I learned that it is important to illustrate some concepts with additional images, in my case, the concept of virtual environment is difficult to understand a purely textual manner.
    • Most comments indicated that I added additional items that did not develop properly and lose focus of the topic.
    • It is indeed a very effective tool to organize ideas, I think one usually tries unconsciously use such techniques.
    • (very unstable communication)
  • Rainer Kiko (GEOMAR, Kiel, Germany) http://teaching.software-carpentry.org/2014/06/22/concept-map-for-loop-in-python
    • to decide for a topic took quite a while, drawing the map took about 30 min, drawing a new one would take about 20 min.
    • I did not learn something new about my topic, as I took a very easy one. From the comments I got I learned that some people would like to have the variable names have some meaning. For beginners I think it is important that the names have no meaning, instead of e.g. reserved terms.
    • good to learn what others or oneselve knows about a topic
    • I think it is time effective
  • Aaron Erlich (UW, Seattle, USA) http://teaching.software-carpentry.org/2014/06/18/regex-concept/
    • ~15 minutes. I think how long it would take depends on how much I new about the topic and how difficult it was to diagram in terms of the relations.
    • I can’t say that I learned that much new about the topic, but I did gain a better understanding about how to relate the parts. I did choose a fairly easy one, though.
    • I wished the comments were a bit harsher :). I didn’t learn too much from them, to be frank
    • Payoff was definitely worthwhile. Though it was cost effective because I could remember how things were related very quickly. I had taught this before and couldn’t as easily link things
  • Brian Forst (U of A, Edmonton, AB, Canada) http://teaching.software-carpentry.org/2014/06/24/concept-map-cleaning-a-climbing-anchor/
    • 15-20 minutes to build the map, a bit longer to understand the idea of a concept map
    • Scoping what I would teach. I probably bit off too much. Also, having a proper level of abstraction while tying back to concrete motivating examples would be important.
    • It’s easy to start making a concept map and then fall back to old patterns/methods of displaying information.
    • Yes, definitely worth it. I got a better, explicit understanding of how ideas linked together and at which level of abstraction they should sit.
  • Lisa Ballard — http://teaching.software-carpentry.org/2014/06/18/concept-map-virtualenv/
    • about 30 minutes; to do again about 15-20
    • I had an idea about how I would teach it linearly and then had to wedge that into a concept map, it was like breaking a story up into a tree, I found it difficult I guess, I really wanted to just draw it out as a linear path
    • my brain doesn’t work that way, I think more in linear stories I guess? I suppose it did help me break up the parts of the lesson
    • I think it is time effective if you are just starting to think about something, and want to help organize fragmented thoughts, but not if you already have a story in your head

Questions for today to get us started:

  • How long did it take you to create your concept map? And how long would it take to do something like this again (i.e., how much of the time was you figuring out how to do concept maps, and how much was intrinsic to the problem)?
  • What did you learn about your topic and how you’d teach it from doing your concept map?
  • What did you learn about concept mapping in general from what you saw, the comments you got, etc.?
  • Do you think this is a time-effective technique?

19:00 Eastern

  • Greg Wilson (Mozilla, Toronto)
  • Jesus Ballesteros (GWU, Washington DC) http://teaching.software-carpentry.org/2014/06/17/concept-map/
    • 30-40 mins. and i passed for at least three drafts. the second time I think I’d take less time… maybe 20 mins, but i still thing that i’d need to make a couple of versions before being satisfied.
    • I choose a simple topic but definitively helped trying to design it for a general audience, and I had to go back to the man page a couple of times.
    • This is the first concept map i draw… other friends have used it before, i think it is a useful tool, but one the other hand i think i also overly worry on the spatial arrangement…
    • Since it is the first time I do something like this, I think i took me quite a long time, if it is made a note-taking habit it will be faster….
  • Scott Ritchie (University of Melbourne, Australia) http://teaching.software-carpentry.org/2014/06/17/data-tables-in-r/
    • I think it took me about an hour in total, a lot of it was figuring out how to draw the concept map, which directions to take. I had trouble working out how to label nodes and edges in the graph. If it was the same concept map, but refined, it would be much faster, maybe 5-10 minutes, but for a new concept map it might still take 30-45 minutes.
    • I learnt that the topic I chose, while at first glance should be rather simple, it requires a lot of prior knowledge (how to access data structures in R) that a novice might not have, and would need to be covered.
    • It’s very hard to separate ideas out into nodes and edges, and also difficult to highlight the critical path in the concept map, and I don’t think I achieved either effectively.
    • I think its a useful tool, for refining ideas and teaching method, but I’m not sure if there’s a faster and more time-effective way.
  • Johnny Lin (North Park University, Chicago, IL and University of Washington Bothell, Bothell, WA) http://teaching.software-carpentry.org/2014/06/17/concept-map-how-to-slice-a-list-in-python/
    • 30-45 min. To do it again it might take 15-30 min.
    • I found it helpful to clarify my thinking in terms of how to break things down.
    • I thought the neatest part were the comments from others and the way they would suggest breaking things down. That is to say, what I most appreciated was the insight into how other people break things down in their minds.
    • I think it’s time-effective for the most top-level breakdown of a course as well as a tool for getting students to engage the material and to use in your lecture. As a lecture/class preparation tool, it might take too long to do. That is to say, if you want to just get an idea of your own mental knowledge space for every part of your class, that might be too time-consuming.
  • Xu Fei (UN, New York) http://teaching.software-carpentry.org/2014/06/20/concept-map-square-root-of-x/
    • 30 min. About half of the time was to review the algorithm itself, and the other half is to put things together in a concept map. The mapping part will definitely take less time, so maybe 15 min?
    • I learned (mostly reviewed) about the logical workflow of taking a square root of any number. I’d use the concept map as a reference to go through the steps.
    • I like it particularly for algorithms (or stuff I am not too confident with). I think it’s quite natural to use concept maps to explain computational problems. The comments are very encouraging and helped me to understand where I understood/explained incorrectly.
    • Yes for computing related concepts, it’s very time-effective. Not sure about explaining other concepts.
  • Andy Leung (Vancouver, BC) http://teaching.software-carpentry.org/2014/06/17/concept-map-data-types-in-r/
    • No more than 30 minutes. I was doodling other stuff at the same time. I think it will take me 15-20 minutes next time.
    • I thought I can cover everything in 10 minutes but it seems to be too much for most audiences (i.e., my reviewers). I will shrink things down the next time, perhaps just concentrate it.
    • The comments I received were somewhat bi-modal. Some thinks it’s too much, some think it’s okay.
    • A useful technique to brainstorm a concept in a limited time.
  • David Kua (Toronto, ON) http://teaching.software-carpentry.org/2014/06/22/concept-map-importing-modules-in-python/
    • Took about 30 minutes, there was a lot of double checking references to see if my memory was correct. Probably would only take 10 minutes to do again.
    • I corrected a few wrong assumptions that I had previously.
    • Concept mapping helps streamline and connect my ideas.
    • Yes.c
  • Maciej Czuchry (ACC Cyfronet AGH, Kraków, Poland) http://teaching.software-carpentry.org/2014/06/17/7689/
    • I think it takes me about 15 min, but it takes me about twice same to think what I should insert in this map and how to connect it. Next time it should take me less time, 20 min with thinking how to connect it.
    • I didn’t acquire new knowledge, but I need to think how to connect all parts.
    • What I learn is map should be easy to undersnand with first (or second) look and it should be like KISS principle. Also the better you understand the topic of map, the easier is map to create.
    • Yes — it can save a lot of time to create short note with all what is really importand included.
  • Ana Malagon (Yale, New Haven, CT): http://teaching.software-carpentry.org/2014/06/24/concept-map-git-2/
    • 10 mins; probably more next time as I forgot to add labels expressing the relationship between nodes
    • I learned that it’s non-trivial to figure out how to structure the flow; I had to rethink “what are separate things”, “what follows from what”
    • The comments were good — I missed some topics and needed to differentiate whether this was a concept map about a lesson plan for the topic, or a concept map explaining the topic. I just put in commands but needed to explain why those commands were there.
    • Yes
  • Scott Talafuse (Houston, TX):http://teaching.software-carpentry.org/2014/06/18/concept-map-basic-anatomy-of-a-git-commit-object/
    • It took a good hour to create something rough and unsatisfactory. About 5-10 minutes was learning how to draw a concept map. The rest was intrinsic to my chosen topic.
    • It was much more time-consuming than I initially believed to find an organization that was clear, concise, and comprehensive. Essentially, I performed iterations of “pare down and re-organize” until something approached teachability.
    • I seem to prefer concept maps that include relationship labels between concepts, and concept maps that use a “uniform” syntax of simple nodes and arrows (as opposed to “interesting” graphics and variable node shapes. The comments on my concept map pointed out things I had not even considered.
    • I think this is time effective. If I were preparing to teach a concept via traditional outline techniques, I am convinced I would spend longer with iterations, assuming I could see ways to refine things *at all*.