Web 2.0 Applications designed to integrate the Conceptual Maps into the Teaching Activity

Abstract

The typical representative of today's youth generation (NET Generation) spends over 20,000 hours on the internet and over 10,000 hours enjoying online games of all sorts before turning 20 years old. This is why a series of web 2.0 applications were and will continue being created greatly focusing on the visual and spatial performances, improving and developing collaborative work.
In the educational process, the elaboration of conceptual/mind maps helps pupils/students organise and represent their concepts in a manner tailored to the understanding ability. By means of these maps, the pupils/students can correlate the concepts in a variety of ways valuing and stimulating the creativity and originality, thus integrating such concepts in their own individual notional systems.
For the Teacher, this type of investigation is a means to periodically perform true "incursions" into the pupils /students' intellectual acquisitions, this being an overall reflection of how the specific concepts are understood and correlated. Knowing and using WEB 2.0 applications which facilitate this (the elaboration of conceptual maps) and integrating them into the teaching activity is essential for any teacher willing to stay up-to-date with the latest novelties and innovations in the field.                                                                                                                                  In conclusion, several ideas will be provided concerning the use of such technologies in education, all of which are integrated by the article author in her teaching activity.