BRAINBANK LEARNING – BUILDING PERSONAL TOPIC MAPS AS A STRATEGY FOR LEARNING

BBL (BrainBank Learning) is a suite of intuitive tools for learning of concepts and their content, and how they relate. The core of the suite is BrainBank®, the ontology of a topic map for acquired knowledge in a lifelong perspective. Topic Maps is a standard (ISO 13250) that defines an effective way of representing information. BBL is a web application (so called CAL Computer Aided Learning software), a web-based topic maps editor that works with standard Internet browsers. This means that educational institutions are not dependent on local installations or state of the art equipment to use the application. Users enter the application through individual accounts. Topics (keywords) that the student meets during education activities are entered and described using BBL. The topics can then be connected by describing associations between them. To further describe topics and associations in BBL, digital resources such as documents, pictures, movie clips and sound clips can be attached to the topics. These resources can either be external or uploaded to and stored in BrainBank. BBL stimulates the learning process as the student continuously reflects on and updates his own knowledge and stores it in BrainBank. The students can document their knowledge production in BBL. This opens up for new methods for evaluating students, and makes BBL an ideal instrument for modern forms for education. With support from the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research, a project to study the pedagogical potential of BBL has been undertaken at Alsvag barneog ungdomsskole with pupils from the 8th grade. The project has been evaluated by PLP (Program for learning and pedagogy) at the University of Tromso, Norway. The main method for evaluation has been interviews with pupils and teachers, and the report presents several interesting pupil quotes: “we learn more”, “we remember more of what we have learned”, “we do our homework in a different way” are some examples. The project concludes that BBL motivates the pupils, and stimulates a motivation for learning in the knowledge building process itself. A surprising finding was that it seems that BBL may stimulate meta cognitive process and consciousness of learning in such young pupils. Moreover, from a pedagogic point of view, the report concludes that the topic maps application BrainBank Learning is a promising strategy for associative learning and adapted education.