There are some options for making collaborative concept maps.  Webspiration is an online version of Inspiration (and Kidspiration).  It's currently still in its public beta testing, but it looks like they are moving towards a subscription based model for their product.  Most of the functionality of the full Inspiration software is available, and it is fairly easy to share, import, and export documents.

An alternative to Webspiration might be to use the shared "Drawing" type of document available in Google Docs.  It requires a little more manipulation to link shapes (ideas) to one another than Webspiration, but the canvas is really flexible and with a little time, users can get used to making the interface work for them.

A friend of mine shared with me last night a great free application for making concept maps (also commonly referred to as mind maps).  MindNode is a simple and elegant tool with an easy to interface.  Some might find that the inability to use shapes, images, arrows, and other design elements is a limitation, but I believe that it makes the presentation of the concept map ultimately more powerful.

The drag and drop interface is extremely intuitive. Once you start a new node from the master, the color automatically changes according to a very .  You can change the colors of the fonts of the text as well as the lines connecting items.  My friend suggested that a fun activity to do in order to learn the interface would be to try and recreate the NYC Subway map.

Unfortunately, MindNode is only available for Macs, but they do have an iPhone/iTouch/iPad compatible app for $5.99.  They also have a "pro" version that has some additional features that can be learned about here.

This morning participants at November Learning's BLC10 conference listened to Mitch Resnick speak about various programs made by young people in Scratch, a simple programming interface designed at MIT.  He stressed the importance of creativity and collaboration and how the online environment that accompanies the Scratch software has fostered these two things.

This past year I had my 8th grade students work (in pairs or individually) on making programs in Scratch.  The theme was their 8th grade play, The Mouse That Roared.  They were pretty excited about doing this.  I didn't know much about any advanced features of the programs, but some of the kids were able to figure out some pretty amazing things on their own and then share them with the class.

Based on Dr. Resnick's description of crowd-sourcing and task delegation, next year I may have the students work in larger teams, where some students who may be more artistically inclined can design the backgrounds and characters, some students who are into story telling can design the arc of the program, and the more programming oriented students can work on the nuts and bolts.

I've decided to use Weebly to host this website. It's a free website creation tool with some great templates and an easy interface.  I bought the "constructivisttoolkit.com" domain from GoDaddy, and Weebly made it very easy for me to point the domain to this site.  You don't have to purchase the domain name, I just chose to.  If I didn't the site might have had ".weebly.com" in the URL name.

Creating a site on Weebly might be a great alternative to a traditional report or paper, or even to a PowerPoint presentation.  Kids would be able to organize their thoughts, use images and video, and even host discussions using the the many pre-designed elements that are available in Weebly.

I think that kids from 3rd grade up would have no trouble with this highly multimodal interface.  The thumbnail images for the elements and design layouts do not require programming knowledge to understand the functions they perform.

As I add more to this site, I plan on testing out every feature available. Stay tuned!