Description project
Learning vocabulary, and especially the meaning of words, is a critical step in young children’s development. Currently, teachers in the first grades of primary school often use mindmaps to help children understand the meaning of words. However, making the mindmaps and findings associated pictures is labor intensive for teachers, and the ways of interaction are limited.
In this project, we codesign with ATO primary schools and Prowise AI-powered smartboard software to be used by teachers in the early grades of primary school. The AI will help select age appropriate concepts, with fitting images, and relevant classroom activities on the smartboard and on linked tablets. All based on a model of the developing children’s lexicon. We pay specific attention to ethical considerations, including not strengthening stereotypes and power consumption of especially generative AI usage, and how teachers can effectively use the tool in the classroom.
After the educational design phase, the tool will be validated in classrooms, to verify whether it indeed leads to a smoother and more effective mindmap experience for both teachers and children.
Expected outcomes
The primary expected outcome is that the mAIndmap tool will be used throughout the Netherlands on Prowise smartboards. It will be integrated in the Prowise infrastructure and offered to schools to use freely.
In addition, the program will be released open-source for wider usage. This includes the model of the children’s lexicon and the database of images, which both have wider relevance.
Lastly, the project is expected to lead to insights on how mindmap tools can be effectively used for vocabulary learning and how AI can support this in an ethical manner. Next to in scientific publication(s), these insights will be bundled with the source code and manuals to inspire wider uptake of AI-powered mindmapping, in- and outside primary schools.
involved researchers
Duration of the project
September 2025 – August 2028
Funding & partners
“National OnderwijsLabAI” (NOLAI) co-creation grant