I love trying out new (to me) tools for teaching and learning. I was looking for a way to model “Active Learning” — this idea that students learn when they’re engaged in the process of learning. I found “Spicy Nodes” and voilà: a visualization of active learning was born. Click on the various “nodes” or bubbles to expand and see what’s buried beneath. Continue clicking on each node until it goes no further. You might find you’re actively learning about active learning. (Woah — that was kind of meta!) Go ahead and try out the tool yourself. There are both free and premium accounts available.
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Thanks Candace! After seeing your model of Active Learning I decided to sign up for a SpicyNodes account. I have used it for a couple of projects, including a depiction of the research ethics process which I presented to a group of admin types. They loved it!
This is a great tool and I could see myself using it for teaching.
That’s great Pierre! I think the process also lends itself to learning. Creating the nodes is a neat way of learning to model hierarchies. Because you can drag, drop, and nest levels quite easily, it’s good practice at rearranging things. You can test what’s really important and what belongs where — then change your mind and try something else. Feel free to share a link to your spicy nodes!
Thanks for sharing SpicyNodes! I’m going to use it in my next presentation. It’s also a great way to let students play around with concept mapping.
Way Cool! I will teach myself to learn this pronto!. Great find Candace!