Active vs. Passive Graphic Organizers

While creating a list of Electronic Graphic Organizers, I realized that there is a distinction between Graphic Organizers that I hadn't considered.

Graphic organizers are tools that are used to graphically show the relationships between ideas or concepts.  

This is usually done in an active manner that involves the user doing the listing and organizing of the various ideas.

The advent of technology and web has provided a manner in which the relationships are already created for the user.  This is a passive manner for the user. The two relational organizers that were listed in the previous posting on this blog are both passive.

These organizers: liveplasma and visualthesaurus, are definitely passive.

I would imagine that these could also be considered “reference” organizers so that a learner can get the “lay of the land” and then use the active organizers to structure his/her own understanding of the content.

Z