Computer-based concept maps for enabling multilingual education in computer science: A Basque, English and Spanish languages case

Abstract

Inside the globalisation era in which society is immersed, one of the current challenges for any educational system is to provide quality education. While some countries are linguistically homogeneous, many countries and regions display a wealth of linguistic diversity and it is essential to adapt the educational system to those realities. In addition, multilingual education promotes not only social equality but also inter-cultural education. The development of computer software localisable not only at interface level but also regarding learning resources may help to fulfill this aim. During the last years a number of products have emerged to support computer-based concept mapping. This paper presents a pilot study carried out at the University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU in the area of database systems with three main aims: to facilitate learning about the subject domain, to evaluate whether concept mapping is in general a good technique for learning topics in different languages, and finally, to verify whether CM-ED Concept Map EDitor provides the necessary mechanisms to fulfil this objective. Results confirm that the use of a concept map editor is a good support for education in multilingual settings.