Marie

= **Marie Sack - Action Research Idea** = **Research Topic or Question:** Using Popplet (Concept Mapping Cloud App) to help students learn how to collaborate effectively online, brainstorm, and organize information.

** Domain for your research project (classroom, training, etc.) ** :
Technology classroom

** Brief description of content area of unit/lesson or module: **
====Students are frequently required to do group projects and present their findings to their teachers and classmates. They usually begin by brainstorming ideas within their group. The students then divide up the group's research task and collaborate their findings throughout the project. They need to organize the facts that they find and develop an accurate coherent final presentation. The use of concept mapping tools such as Popplet can help the students in accomplishing all these tasks. In addition to accomplishing these basic steps the students and teachers will be able gauge how much each student contribute to the project. Shy, quiet students will no longer need to compete verbally to have their thoughts and ideas incorporated in the project. The students are able to include their ideas and other group members cannot delete them - they can only add comments.==== ====Numerous studies have been done to support the use of concept mapping in helping students to have a deeper understanding of concepts and to retain the information longer. Popplet is the ideal concept mapping application that is easy to use, free, and allows groups to collaborate synchronously (not immediate real time, but close). Another great benefit for students using Popplet is that they can incorporate music, images, videos, and websites to make their group project more dynamic.====

**Your role (teacher, trainer, collaborator)** :
Teacher & collaborator

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