Navigating personal information repositories with Weblog authoring and concept mapping

The advent of the Web and the information economy has changed the requirements for learning in the workplace and higher education. To deal with ill-structured, amorphous information, learners need to become self-organized learners capable of identifying both content and process of own learning. Engagement in the learning conversations of self-organized learning requires methods for representing information spontaneously as well as organizing information within a meaningful structure. In this chapter, we identify the role of the emerging practices of Weblog authoring and concept mapping in supporting knowledge construction and meaning-making in amorphous domains. We indicate how the structure and practices of Weblog authoring support construction of a personal repository of information as well as ability to engage in shared dialogue about artifacts. We then identify the facilitatory role of concept mapping in organizing knowledge, and conclude with suggestions for visual mapping tools to support seamless integration of information archival and mapping.