Concept Mapping
Concept mapping and mind mapping are not exactly the same, although they both are very useful for visualizing and understanding ideas and information. Without getting too technical, the basic difference is that concept maps help you visualize the relationships between different concepts within a central focus, while mind maps associate words and ideas with a central key word or idea.
What?
The best way to explain the difference is with - you guessed it - a mind map and a concept map.
Concept Maps vs. Mind Maps
Wikipedia has an example concept map that explains what concept maps are (that makes my head hurt just thinking about it). Pay particular attention to the words between the key ideas - those define the relationships between topics and are the hallmark of concept maps. The Memletics Concept Mapping ebook also has a really good concept map, which is part of an excellent chapter on concept mapping.
Check out the mind map gallery for mind mapping examples. Notice that, in general, mind maps don't have words in between topics (although boundaries and other indicators are often used to indicate associations among different topics).
Concept Mapping Resources
This list isn't complete - I'm only comfortable recommending resources I've personally used or read and found valuable.
- Concept mapping defined
- Memletics has a great ebook (in PDF format) on concept mapping / mind mapping. This ebook is inexpensive and amazing - I can't recommend it enough.
- Cmap - Concept Mapping Software for Windows, Mac, Linux and Sparc. Memletics' concept mapping ebook is a great companion to this software.