Mind Mapping Tools Online
Dear All, this time we would be exploring another important and extremely effective teaching
strategy that is mind mapping and brainstorming.
I will be sharing a few online tools that you could use for mind mapping activities in class.
This is the simplest and the most effective teaching strategy to immediately gather data about
students' understanding about a topic, gauge their prior knowledge or generate new ideas about a topic.
A Johns Hopkins study indicates that students who utilise Mind Mapping increase their grades by 12%.
What is mind mapping?
It is a visual way of gathering thoughts about a topic, or an idea in an organic form. The tree metaphor
could explain this well enough, with branches and twigs. A diagram for representing tasks, words ,
concepts or items around a central idea. A mind map can turn a long lengthy , boring text into a
colourful, organised and more meaningful diagram, which is easy to remember and process. This
way of processing information matches the natural way of how the brain works.
There are a number of reasons due to which schools should use mind mapping tools both in
teaching and learning. The schools could use mind mapping to create curriculum plans for every
grade. The teachers could review and edit as they work along. The curriculum plan would help
teachers in designing more coherent and detailed lesson plans. Mind mapping could also be used
for gathering feedback about a topic from students.
It could also be used for gaining an insight into students' prior knowledge about a topic. It could
be also used for generating ideas about a topic. Brainstorming and visualising concepts. Writing
outlines of reports or meetings. Writing an essay on a topic. Students could create notes or summaries
for exams. Students could collaborate on a project and share ideas with other groups.
Some of the benefits of mind mapping include the following:
It can help process information more effectively and efficiently.
It can help with memorization and retention.
It makes difficult and complex issues/concepts easier to understand.
It helps enhance creativity.
It also boosts productivity.
It offers flexibility, any age group of learners could use it easily and effectively.
It is easy to share and a number of students could collaborate and work together on a mind map.
There are a number of tools online that could be used for mind mapping.
My favourite include the following:
Bubble.us - You could create colourful mind maps with bubbl.us. It lets you create different
types of mind maps. It lets you organise your thoughts in a more organised way, so that they
make more sense. The interface lets you focus on the task and avoids distractions. It is easy to
download and save. It also lets you collaborate online and share.
Popplet - This is yet another very interesting mind mapping tool available online. It lets you
capture ideas and present them visually in the form of nodes. It helps students learn creatively
and visually. It has a very colourful and easy to use interface. It can be used in different languages.
It also includes real time collaboration features. 10 Popplet boards are completely free. It is easy to
sign up.
Coggle - This is another interesting online tool used for mind mapping. It is easy to create, organise
and share information on any topic. It's very colourful, interactive as compared to the rest of the online
tools. You can add collaborators who can edit along. It has a message corner where you can
discuss your project with fellow peers. The diagrams are automatically saved.
Mindmeister - It's an online mind mapping tool that lets you capture, develop, express thoughts
about a topic, generate ideas and share ideas visually. You can convert your mind maps into
presentations and add collaborators who could work with you on the mind maps. These maps
are colourful and easy to remember. They develop creativity.
Google Drawing - This is another very interesting tool from Google. It lets you create different
forms of mind maps using the available shape palette. You could create different diagrams and
charts using the available graphic organisers. All drawings are automatically saved in drive.
They can be downloaded and even shared online. Collaborators could be added who could work
on the same drawing with you.
https://docs.google.com/drawings
Google Jamboard - Jamboard is Google's interactive white board. It comes with some amazing
features. It offers a great opportunity for collaboration. You could add as many slides as you want
to the Jamboard. You could even assign one Jamboard per student and they could create their
individual mind maps. Collaborators could be added and multiple people could work on the same
Jamboard together. You can set different backgrounds. The work is auto saved in Google drive,
downloaded and shared.
MindMup - This is another online tool used for mind mapping. It helps you gather all ideas
in one platform. It gives you the flexibility to share your mind maps with your peers. You can
brainstorm ideas, create maps and presentations and share on your social media channels. You
can convert your mind maps easily to pdf download and save. You could save the maps to google
drive and share online.
Enjoy reading till my next blog post soon InnShaaAllah.
Regards and prayers
Sheeba Ajmal
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