THE CONTRIBUTION OF CONCEPT MAPS TO LOLA – THE ON-LINE LEARNING LAB Concept Maps: Theory, Methodology, Technology Proc. of the First Int. Conference on Concept Mapping

Abstract

Abstract The need for continuous learning and professional-improvement has never been so strong. Driven by the process of economic development and its social and cultural consequences, pedagogy has been trying to encourage the teaching community to react to the demands and changes of the market, its products and processes. From this world perspective of constant changes due to the globalisation and technological evolution, comes one of the greatest challenges to education: the access to continuous learning, made easier to all segments of society, by the development of a new and creative model which answers to the needs of this society where knowledge ages in an accelerated manner and the production and circulation of information grows by the minute. On-line education becomes a possible alternative to address this issue as it makes use of a technology (the Internet) that allows the reaching of resources that were, up to now, unimaginable. With the objective of overcoming the learning/teaching model of reproduction and accumulation of knowledge, LOLA – The On-line Learning Lab was created in 2002. LOLA, product of TORRES ´ doctorate dissertation, was awarded 1 st place prize by the Brazilian Association on Distance Learning and the Brazilian telephone communications company EMBRATEL in the category Research. Its proposal is now being augmented by MARRIOTT with the inclusion of the creation of Concept Maps (CM) as both a reading and writing technique. Based on Ausubel’s meaningful learning theory, it promotes- at the same time- the activity of both sides of the brain, the analytical/rational and the creative/intuitive, and the construction and the interpretation of its representation promote levels of cognition and communication of the highest levels. In this article, you will learn briefly about the activities developed by LOLA