A Concept Map is a graphical presentation of concepts and where concepts
links together with linking words. Concept and linking words together forms a
preposition or an entity of meaning. The structure of a Concept Map is,
according to the latest brain research, a good model of how knowledge is
stored in the human brain.

Concept Maps are widely used in the academia to construct knowledge models,
especially in natural science to analyze and to explain phenomena. It has
proven to be a powerful tool in education, and especially for the science and
development in artificial intelligence.

It has some resemblance with Mind Maps (such as those developed using
MindManager from MindJet), however the MindMaps does not have linking words,
and they are strictly hierarchical, unable to produce a preposition (without
simulating linking words). There are also other tools like MindMapper which
does both mind Maps and Concept Maps.

I will suggest that you take a look at http://cmap.ihmc.us and explore the
maps they have published on the web. This company has also developed a free
Java based desktop application to develop and share Concept Maps with others
on the internet. Unfortunately the application is not very office compliant,
but it is very effective in what it is designed for.

This is the application I have found to be the most accurate of creating
Concept Maps developed by J.D Novak in the 1970’s. IHMC has also a lot of
articles published on their site regarding this topic.

web sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concept_map
http://cmap.ihmc.us
http://cmap.ihmc.us/Publications/ResearchPapers/TheoryCmaps/TheoryUnderlyingConceptMaps...

"exciter" wrote: