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Institution:
IUAV University of Venice
- CIRCE (Centre for
Interdepartmental surveying, map making and processing services)
Venezia
Address:
IUAV
Università degli Studi CIRCE
S. Croce, 1624
30135 Venezia
tel.: 041.257.1501-1520
fax.: 041.257.1510
Contact person:
Corrado Petrucco
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It is a new methodology that
uses the cognitive power of the concept maps to enhance the search skills.
The SEWCOM method is a
metacognitive method to search, choose and integrate knowledge on the web.
It utilizes the concept maps to help focalize visually the object of
interest and to integrate it in pre-existent cognitive structure.
Theoretical bases
·
Students
as infotective and the need for information literacy
·
Cognitive
strategies and cognitive styles to search the Net
· Concept
maps as metacognitive tool to search, build and re-elaborate the knowledge found
on the net
·
The importance of a lexicon
explicited by concept maps
·
The two
processes: selecting a lexicon and selecting a strategy
Information search involves two
hardly connected processes:
a. learning
the lexicon of the issued semantic domain and
b. learning
the best strategies to locate the information.
The SEWCOM method tries to
integrate both processes. It uses the metacognitive/visual approach of the
concept maps and can be used either collaboratively and stand-alone and comes
out from previous observation and experimentation with adults and young people
from the letter classes of the higher schools.
The four
steps of the SEWCOM method
1. Brainstorming and contextual planning of the concept map through words
connected with the argument that you will search on.
2. Topological
re-organizing of the map in relation to the individuated semantic areas and use
of the search engines through the key-words of each area
3.
Reading
and interpretation of documents found and discovering of new words to include
into the map
4. Creative re-organization of the map and of the new knowledge acquired
The Galileo case:
an example of SEWCOM method
Testing
The SEWCOM method was
experimented during a series of seminars on Didactics on the Net. They took place
in 1999 and in 2000 for about 200 persons (headmasters from Veneto,
Friuli and Sardinia, and students from secondary schools of Veneto). It
was tried to verify on adults and young people if and how much a metacognitive
reflection supported by a concept map could improve the efficacy and
effectiveness of on-line searching.
At present, the SEWCOM method has been tested in many schools overall in Italy.
Some testers are listed
at:
http://cidoc.iuav.it/~conrad/sewcom/eng_version/join_us.htm
Courses
Useful reports
are available in Italian at:
http://ulearn.itd.ge.cnr.it/workshop_syllabus/abstract%20presentazioni/petrucco.doc
http://www.edscuola.it/archivio/software/sewcom.html
Related
sites:
http://eurekster.com/nations/Concept_maps_-_sewcom_method.htm
Concept maps
– sewcom method Search Engine:
Info Nation founded by Corrado Petrucco on 23 April 2004
A rich bibliography
(in English and Italian)
is available
at:
http://cidoc.iuav.it/~conrad/sewcom/eng_version/applicazione_bib.htm
Keywords: information
literacy - Internet information literacy - sewcom method - web
searching – search strategies – cognitive search strategies - search engines – metacognitive method –
concept maps – semantic areas – semantic web – keywords - didactics on the net – brainstorming – lexicon
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