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Since the 1970s mind mapping has been the go to source for brainstorming and planning. Before long mind maps found its way into the education field and has proven to be the next best thing for both students and teachers. Teachers only have a few months during the summer to prepare for the upcoming academic year and those who work all year have less than this. Teachers of all levels use mind maps to help lighten the work load and therefore can focus on what’s most important, the students. Mind maps are the perfect solution to help instructors organize and complete these tasks in much less time than normal. Below are top ways mind mapping help teachers to save time and be more productive.

Planning. Lesson plans are the bulk of a teacher’s responsibilities. Mind maps help teachers to brainstorm potential classroom activities, lesson plans, field trips and other projects. Mind maps will also aid in the organization and arrangement of these items.

Presentations. Chalkboards are quickly becoming a thing of the past and teachers of all levels are searching for new innovative methods to communicate and present information to their students. Mind maps with it colors, text and graphics, captures the attention of students and makes learning interesting. Interested students absorb more, learn more and ultimately perform better academically. Using mind maps teachers can easily update information, and more importantly, open and organize these mind maps into a slide show with PowerPoint.

Study Guides. Mind mapping is well known for its learning capabilities, so it should come as no surprise that teachers utilize mind maps to help students do their best learning. Mind maps allows teachers to step away from the traditional list and outline form, and provide students with a learning tool to promote thinking and innovation. Mind maps are in a compact form, and loads of information is easily organized onto one page, making the mind map perfect for printing. Improved study guides result in improved grades.

Research. Information has changed over the years and so has research methods. Mind maps give teachers an open canvas to test and explore subjects and classroom content before presenting them as lesson plans. Mind maps helps to keep all found information neatly organized, and allows the instructor to easily expand on the said mind map.

Learning Encouragement. The word encouragement is used because although school is a place of learning, it is very rare the instructors actually teach the students how to learn. Presenting mind maps to students will not only open their eyes to a different method of learning, but a more beneficial method as well. With the help of mind maps students have no choice but to be more innovative, organized and a better student overall.

As one can see there are many ways teachers can take advantage of mind maps. The uses range from brainstorming lesson plans to designing study guides. Incorporating mind maps into classroom room activities and other projects encourages group interaction and learning. Take a look at the attached mind map and feel free to print it as a quick guide to how instructors benefit from the use of mind maps.

One of the greatest challenges teachers face is preparing an engaging and enriching lesson plan for students. There are many tools teachers can use to make this process easier. However, very few of these methods will contain the advantages found in Mind Mapping. Mind Maps are more intuitively laid out than most traditional lesson plans, because they are presented spatially, rather than linearly, and are “mapped” out across the page. Moreover, because Mind Maps are comprised of colors, visual images, and pictures, instead of just words, they allow the brain to process the information contained in them in a manner more consistent with natural brain functioning. Mind Maps are an effective and creative way to help teachers design lesson plans, and they can make the process of teaching students a lot simpler.

Using Mind Mapping to Construct a Lesson Plan

At minimum, a good lesson plan usually contains six key components. The first component is the key concept of the lesson, namely, what the teacher wants the students to learn about the topic. The key concept should be represented in the center of the Mind Map. The second component of a good lesson plan is the objective, or the skill the teacher intends to teach, and which he or she wants the students to learn as a result of the lesson. For instance, the teacher’s objective may be to teach students the letters of the alphabet, resulting in the students being able to recite the alphabet from memory. The main topic should be connected to the key concept via a “branch”. If the teacher has more than one objective, he or she can list them on multiple “branches”. The third component of the lesson plan is the pre-planning materials. The pre-planning materials are any materials that must be prepared in preparation of teaching the lesson. The pre-planning materials component should be attached to the objective(s) via a “child branch”. The fourth component is the student materials, or the materials the children need to successfully complete the lesson. The student materials component should also be attached to the objective(s) via a “child branch”. Though attached to the same topic(s), the pre-planning materials and student materials components should be shown in separate areas of the Mind Map, on either side of the topic(s), with the specific materials to be used flowing out of them via new “child branches” or “twigs”. Fifthly is the procedure component. The procedure component lists the steps a teacher intends to take when teaching the lesson, including sample questions. As with the previous two components, this component should also be attached to the objective(s) via a “child branch”. The “child branch” should extend below the main topic, off to the side, and have the steps of the procedure attached to it via “child branches” or “twigs”. The last component of a successful lesson plan is the closure, or the summary of the lesson to the students.¹ On the Mind Map, this component should be attached to the key concept via a “branch” located below the key concept. The attached Mind Map shows an example of a teacher lesson plan “mapped out” in the manner described.

Teaching the Lesson From the Mind Map

Once the Mind Map outlining the lesson plan is completed, the teacher can easily see all of the components for his or her lesson “mapped out”, with colors, visuals, and picture associations included. This mentally and visually stimulating representation of his or her lesson plan makes it simple for him or her to interpret, process and internalize the lesson. Therefore, the teacher will have more thoroughly learned the lesson, and can more naturally impart the lesson to the students.

1. Source: www.uofaweb.ualberta.ca/fieldexperiences/pdfs/lessonplanhunter.pdf

Getting through the college application process can often be one of the most challenging aspects of a student’s high school career. This challenge is even greater for parents, who want to ensure that their child both gets into a good school and has the means to pay for it. How then, do students and parents navigate their way through the barrage of applications, personal essays, and financial aid forms? One way to do this is to use a Mind Mapping software tool. Mind Maps can be incredibly helpful in managing the college application process because they allow for the organization of information in a way that is highly intuitive. Because Mind Maps are created using visually stimulating images and colors, users have the advantage of viewing information in a way that is easily conceptualized and simple to recall. With Mind Mapping, students and parents can organize every aspect of the college application process creatively, efficiently and effortlessly.

What is Mind Mapping Software?

Mind Mapping software is any software that is used to create diagrams, pictures, and other graphic visuals in order to show the relationship between ideas or other types of information.¹ With Mind Maps, the key concept or main idea of the information being presented is represented by a central image, located in the center of the map. Any themes surrounding the main idea are shown on “branches” that are attached to the central image, with subsequent themes of less importance attached by “twigs”. The resulting diagram is a “map” of the ideas and information shown in a spatial, rather than linear, format. Moreover, along with the ideas shown on the map are images, visual graphics, and colors that the constructor of the “map” associates with each of the themes and ideas. Mapping out information in this manner is widely believed to allow the brain to process the information in manner more consistent with its natural functioning.

Using Mind Mapping to Manage College Applications

A student and her parents have finally arrived at the time to begin applying for college. The student has selected 4 universities to which she will apply, and she and her parents have decided to use a Mind Map to help them through the application process. They construct the college application Mind Map by first representing the purpose of the map, the college applications, with a central graphic image. Next, they divide the map into different sections, one for each of the 4 universities, via “branches” that are attached to the central topic. They continue the map by listing all of the materials they will need to turn in for each school, such as the personal essay, or financial aid form, on “child branches”. On “child branches” that are attached to these materials, the student and her parents list the deadlines by which the materials need to be mailed. Throughout the map, the student and her parents use any colors or visuals they feel will help them better internalize and remember the information laid out on the map. Attached is a Mind Map diagram that shows what their map might look like when completed.

The Advantages of Mind Mapping vs. More Traditional Means of Managing College Applications

Contrast the attached Mind Map with a more traditional way of managing the college application process. Using more traditional means, the student and her parents would probably have used a list to help them remember what was needed for each school and by when. The list, no doubt, would have contained multiple pages, and a large amount of varying information, all of which they would have to keep track. In addition, the list would have been linearly, rather than spatially organized, and would not contain the same color and visual associations found in the Mind Map. The lack of visual imagery and spatial depth would have made the list more tedious to process, and much more difficult to recall. The Mind Map, on the other hand, allows the student and her parents to view all of the information they need to know for each school in one, easy to understand diagram. They can, thus, find out what steps they need to take for any given school with just one look at the map; they do not need to locate and rummage through the pages of a list in order to stay on track of application timelines and materials. Mind Mapping has, therefore, provided both the student and her parents with an effective way to organize all of her college application materials, making the process of managing the applications a relatively simple one.

1. Farrand, Paul; Hussain, Fearzana and Hennessy, Enid (May 2002). “The efficacy of the ‘mind map’ study technique”. Medical Education 36 (5): 426–431.

Field trips are a fun and enjoyable part of the classroom experience. However, planning a field trip is often not as fun, or enjoyable, as the trip itself. Teachers, when planning an outing, must organize everything from deciding when and where to go, to collecting permission slips from parents or guardians. All of this planning can leave the teacher wondering how to organize the trip without forgetting any of the necessary steps. Visual Mind Mapping can be instrumental in helping teachers to organize this information by allowing them to “map out” all of the components of the trip in a creative and intuitive format. With a Mind Map, the teacher can plan the entire trip, start to finish, in one, highly visual, and spatially represented format. The teacher can, thus, use Visual Mind Mapping to make the process of planning and executing a class field trip more effortless than originally imagined.

What are Visual Mind Maps and How Are They Created?

A Visual Mind Map is “a means of organizing information that allows individuals to create diagrams, pictures, and other graphic visuals in order to show the relationship between ideas or other types of information”.¹ With a Visual Mind Map, the creator makes use of colors and symbols to construct the map and represent his or her ideas in a non-linear format. When creating a Visual Mind Map, the individual usually begins by showing the key concept or main idea of the information as a central image, located in the center of the map. Any themes surrounding the main idea are shown on “branches” that are attached to the central topic. Subsequent themes of less importance are then attached to these branches using “child branches”, and so on. The resulting diagram is a “map” of the ideas and information presented that includes the images, visual graphics, and colors the individual associates with each of the themes and ideas.

Planning a Class Field Trip Using a Visual Mind Map

A fourth grade teacher wants to begin planning her annual class field trip. Remembering how difficult it was to keep track of everything last year, she decides to make this year’s process simpler by using a Visual Mind Map. She begins constructing her map by placing a visual to represent the class field trip in the center of the map. Next, she lists all of the main aspects necessary for planning the trip, such as scheduling the trip with the museum the class will visit, on “branches” attached to the central graphic. She lastly lists all of the steps she will need to take to successfully execute each aspect on “child branches” attached to the “branches”. Throughout the map, the teacher places interesting pictures and visuals to make her map more intuitive and therefore each step is easier to remember. When she has finished her Visual Mind Map, it might look similar to the attached Map diagram.

Organizing the Trip from the Mind Map

As the teacher begins to execute the steps listed in her Visual Mind Map, she is amazed at how smoothly the process of organizing the trip is going as compared to last year. The teacher is not bogged down with “to-do” lists that she must find, as was the case previously. Rather, everything that the teacher needs to remember when organizing the trip, including contact information for the museum’s field trip department and deadlines for collecting permission slips, is neatly “mapped out” in one, clear concise document. In addition, the teacher’s use of visual imagery and associative colors make remembering the steps for planning the trip much easier. The teacher, therefore, finds that she is able to organize the trip much more efficiently this year, finishing well ahead of time, compared to what she did last year. Visual Mind Mapping has, therefore, made the process of planning and organizing the field trip almost as enjoyable for the teacher as the trip itself.

1. Farrand, Paul; Hussain, Fearzana and Hennessy, Enid (May 2002). “The efficacy of the ‘mind map’ study technique”. Medical Education 36 (5): 426–431.