MAPPING RESOURCES

There are two activities I do to relax, one is to solve mathematics problems and the other is to create resource maps. “Resource maps” are diagrams (and models) that define, capture, explain, and illustrate relationships between key concepts. They can be concept maps, mind maps, or illustrative graphics. They may evolve as a “model of my understanding” of a subject, and often continue to evolve as a shared understanding among a group of people. Creating resource maps and solving mathematics problems reflect my visual-kinesthetic learning style: seeing and manipulating, whether it is equations or concepts. This article describes three different ways resource maps are useful to learners, trainers, coaches, and modelers:

• Learn - Create to Understand and Reference the Material
• Teach - Use with Visual and Digital Learners
• Model - Model to Evolve Your Understanding

Although this article is primarily about resource maps, I will briefly come back to mathematics (mostly as an analogy) later.