Chapter 11: Concept Mapping And E-Learning: A Pathway Toward Thinking Dispositions

The nation’s evolutionary progress from a 20^th century Industrial Age to that of a 21^st century Information Age has dramatically changed the perceptions of teaching and learning. The evolution, fueled with technological multimedia innovations, in turn, has fueled the current educational reform movement into rethinking purpose and direction about how teaching and learning can effectively match the technological innovations of the 21^st Century (Leem, 2002; Northrup, 2002).

In response, many higher education institutions in general and teacher education colleges in particular, have been acknowledging the burgeoning demand from their clients to incorporate distance education into their curricula programs (National Center for Education Statistics, 1999). While those clients may prefer face-to-face learning, nonetheless, those same clients are demanding to be permitted the choice, flexibility and opportunity to e-learn through distance online courses (Allen & Seaman, 2003; Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2003). And, while students do not learn any better through distance courses (Schweizer, 1999), ongoing studies have indicated they do not learn any less (Allen et al., 2004; Northrup 2002). Thus, the once general tension between which format—online verses face-to-face—outperforms the other, has converged toward a more academic issue; that is, exploring the quality in teaching and learning that would be provided in each format (Grasel, Fischer, & Mandl, 2001; Royer, Cisero, & Carlo, 1993; Shin & Chan, 2004).