Dynamic Reconstruction of Concept Maps

Within the e-learning context, the importance of developing concept maps—and, therefore, of developing software tools that support their design and utilization phases—clearly derives from their connection with the theme of the ontological structure of knowledge, which is founded on graph theory and which determines, according to rules defined by Joseph Novak (Novak & Gowin 1984), the node elements and the relationships with the arcs. However, concept maps cannot be described simply as a product of the evolution of the concept of content indexing, since their role encompasses not only the organizational function of knowing but also the vehiculatory function, assuming that there is a specific clarificatory task within the cognitive context that is different from, and additional to, the navigational support. Research into concept maps takes its cue from the world of education (Novak, 1998), in which their significance is clearly recognized. On the one hand, the characteristic representation of the tissue of relationships that links the concepts together constitutes an extremely interesting expressive approach in terms of its capacity to focus attention of learners, whereas on the other hand—and mainly within the framework of constructivist didactics—the environments used for the ontological mapping of disciplines can be deployed as a locus for collaboration in exploring the cognitive and negotiative context. Both of these aspects are further promoted by e-learning (Canas, Hill, & Lott, 2003; Canas, Hill, Carff, Suri, Lott, & Eskridge, 2004), which uses concept maps not only in the representation of knowledge within a range of structural Learning Object models (Information Maps, Generative Learning, Workflow-based Learning) but also in the indexing of communication flows (Barabasi, 2004), and within interactive environments geared towards the collaborative construction of knowledge.