Mind-blowing maps!!!!!

Hi there!

     Here I am again with a quite helpful tool for teachers and students! Personally, I have used a mindmap many times before but always on a paper! Now, I have learnt how to make them digitally which I actually found to be much richer as you can add links and many other things!

     Mind maps organize information and concepts logically so that we can assimilate and memorize information them in an easier way. Mind Maps help students to note down only the most important information using key words and then make visual connections between facts and concepts.

       The following are web pages that can be used as tools to create mind maps:

- Coggle

- Mindmeister

- Mind42

- SpiderScribe

- Bubble.us

- Creately

- iMindMap

     The first two can allow you to create a min map cooperatively. I tried a few, and after playing a little bit with them I decided to use Creately. 

     You do have to be careful and make sure which ones require Adobe Flashplayer because they will not open on a mobile device, which it is what most people use nowadays to navigate. One of them, for example, is Mindmeister.

     Let´s talk about Creately. The tool offers a variety of resources such as collaborating and sharing mind maps, using your computer or mobile-phone, uploading pictures and videos and hundreds of templates and examples. When you start creating a mind map, it appears an upright toolbar on the left of the screen which contains elements like shapes, connectors and arrows. I would consider this tool intuitive enough for someone who is not an expert in this field. However, nothing is perfect. IT only allows you to create three mind maps for free and it can be a little slow as well. So on top of the extra time, something new requires, take into account to add some more extra time to wait for the tool to obey you!

     The mind map I created is to guide my Second Grade students through a project they have to do. It includes images and links that take them directly to a specific folder in my Pearltrees with the rubric and some resources the might be interested in using for this project called Animals. Ok! enough typing! Here is my mind map! Hope you like it!