1. 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 (speaker) ITIS “Divini” San Severino Marche, Italy; Pending: Adriana Smorto, Istituto Socio Psico Pedagogico “S.ta Rosa da Viterbo”, Italy alfredo.tifi@gmail.com MedTwinning Florence 11/12/2006

2. Why concept mapping should be preferred for collaborations? MedTwinning Florence 11/12/2006

3. How this theory can help e-Twinning and Med-Twinning Collaborative Concept Mapping facilitates mediates permits Communication among different Languages Interdependence among partners Intercultural Exchange Conceptual Widening Italian - Spanish partners: Istituto Tecnico Ind.le “Eustachio Divini” San Severino Marche (IT) - Colegio Santa María del Pilar – Marianistas, Zaragoza (ES) Other new welcomed partners Mediterranean Sea Topics How Molecules Changed History In 2006/07 European Union In 2005/06 could be planned on Is going to be developed on has been developed on Are e.g. may be engaged on MedTwinning Florence 11/12/2006

4. 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. MedTwinning Florence 11/12/2006

5. Why concept maps in L2 are easier to understand than plain text… TEXT UNDERSTANDING Difficulties in decoding spread or metaphoric messages Strong dependence by a knowledge of logic structure of the language 2 Efforts to distinguish which concepts are relevant, which are accessory to understand the text; which are repeated with different labels and which have a different meaning in different contexts CMAP UNDERSTANDING Predicates, linking phrases, are reduced at the least necessary to establish relations among concepts Only essential concepts are elicited Hierarchic organization of concepts determinates their relative or absolute relevance Not repeated concepts in unambiguous contexts. MedTwinning Florence 11/12/2006

6. …CM has also advantages in L1 Opportunities of reading - decoding CM in L1 Opportunities to generalize, passing to abstraction Elicitation and quantification of concepts from L1 texts Recognize the same concept in different terms Differentiate between similar concepts Search for terms to generate precise meanings in relations Assign the concepts a rank in the map as in the cognitive structure of the children Habit to generate focus questions and to interpret text according to general questions. MedTwinning Florence 11/12/2006

7. Multilingual CM helps decision – strategy making for teachers planning of the activities MedTwinning Florence 11/12/2006

8. A shared CM helps groups formation MedTwinning Florence 11/12/2006

9. 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 MedTwinning Florence 11/12/2006

10. Contructing claims from excerpts Arab traders introduced pepper to Europe...led through Damascus and across the Red Sea 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. Pepper was introduced to Europe by Arab traders Pepper passed across Damascus and the Red Sea MedTwinning Florence 11/12/2006

11. Collaborative team working Sharing claims with “Knowledge Soup”Knowledge Soup Working to the shared c-map (with two rules to foster interdependence: Working 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 Opening - Replying Enhanced concept mapping: adding other resources.adding other resources MedTwinning Florence 11/12/2006

12. Added value for med-twinning 1. Transferability (to any other interesting book or shared source); 2. Applied training for teachers on high value technologies for world wide collaboration 3. Possibilities of supporting intensive training online courses on these methodologies for educational institutions 4. Possibilities to find other partners world wide besides us, to apply the same methodology in different topics 5. Possibility to experiment in educational research about Collaborative Concept Mapping and related matters. MedTwinning Florence 11/12/2006