Concept Mapping

The examples of concept diagrams that the website had were not very original. I suppose that this is because I have seen them before and they are used because they work, but I was really hoping to find something more innovative. For example, they showed prime factorization, but as far as I know prime factorization is always taught using some form of concept diagram. Their probability example was pretty specific and it would be useful for specifically investigating the results of flipping a coin, but I think it would be ridiculous to create a concept map of each different possible probability even, especially ones with large sample spaces.
I did really like the example of 2nd degree polynomials, I could definitely see that being usable or one that is really similar to it. I know that a lot of students have trouble in algebra going between the different ways to write equations of lines. So I think that using sort of a concept mapping/process diagram could potentially be very useful for students in that regard. Adding of fractions is also a difficulty that students experience, but I often it seems to me that it doesn’t stem from not knowing how to add fractions but rather not being able to distinguish between the difference of adding and multiplying fractions. That is, students get the two processes mixed up all of the time.
Concept mapping is a great way of conveying information to visual learners and I think that it helps both students who like looking at the big picture and students who like looking at things broken down into steps. So it has the potential to reach many learners, but rather than make it a focus in a classroom, I think that it has more potential as a supplement. For example you could show it on an overhead, or you could post it on a teacher website so that students could access it for help understanding conceptually. It is not that it wouldn’t be helpful to make it an activity, but I think that when it comes to the students doing their homework there should be multiple tools made accessible and if a teacher spends too much time on a concept mapping there is potentially a lot of students who aren’t visually learners who are struggling.
When I use concept mapping in my classroom, I don’t just want to throw it in as time filler. As mentioned before I would like it to be an extra tool that students can use or spend time on. I didn’t mention it before, but I think that as a form of assessment, it would be fantastic if I offered this as one method of demonstrating understanding. Also, before I use a concept map or process diagram, I would like to make sure that it is appropriate. As a future teacher, I think it is easy to get caught up in all the potential tools that we have available and start trying to use tools all the time that may or may not be appropriate to the concepts we are trying to teach.