Many schools, including my own, use Google Apps for Education (GAFE). As such, I was interested to discover the new partnership between one of my favourite mindmapping tools Mindmeister and GAFE. With the new MindMeister add-on, (accessible via the add-on tab within a Google Doc) users can turn any bullet-point list into a MindMeister mindmap and automatically inserts it into their document. The mindmap adopts the exact hierarchical structure used in the list and adds a visually appealing graphic to the document. It’s free and doesn’t require a MindMeister account. The map created is not editable so students need to do the thinking and planning before they convert it to a mindmap. Nothing lost however, as they can always delete and re-do if they need more details. As we are basically visual learners, this is a useful, easily accessible learning support tool. There are many, many online, collaborative mindmapping tools available. A couple of other favourites are:
- Bubble .us – ‘Freemium’ model also with full access but limit of 3 maps. Good collaborative interface.
- Wisemapping – Free, open source, collaborative and able to be embedded into websites.
- iThoughts – very popular IOS tool for iPad and iPhone
Comments and suggestions for other recommended options are welcome.
Thanks Camilla. Great tip. There are some terrific add-ons for Google docs nowadays, and many are available even if your school doesn’t use Apps officially. For example, there’s an Easy-bib add-on and a Lucid graphs one. Interesting to see the ways in which Google is expanding its functionality. if only they would integrate Evernote and Zotero my life would be complete!
I agree Kelly. It seems that whenever you go to the store there is something new, so you may be in luck eventually. I love the 3D Solar System Web. Voice is rather robotic but visual learning potential is huge.