Adam’s adventures in mind mapping: Part one

Do you ever use mind maps with your students? Mind maps are, basically, a visual method of taking notes. For those of us who give credence to learning styles, you’ll find that such a tool is particularly effective with your visual learners, although that’s not to say that everyone in your classes can’t benefit in some way from using a mind map. I’ve been using mind maps fro m my days as a high school student, never mind what I’ve done with them since becoming a teacher.

Their visual foundation helps me to distinguish between different words or ideas, often with the addition of various colours, graphic organizers (lines to you and me) and symbols. They generally take some kind of a hierarchical or tree branch format, with ideas flowing into any number of subsections. When you’ve spent as many years trying to get your students to organize the information they’re going to put into their essays as I have, you’ll come to recognise how invaluable it can be to master some simple mind mapping techniques.

What I really love about mind maps is that, rather than stifling the person making them into having a highly controlled and restricted set of ideas to work with, they actually allow for greater creativity when recording ideas and information, as well as allowing the note taker to associate words with visual representations. I also like the fact that there really is no exact right or wrong with mind maps, however a person chooses to organize it will generally be beneficial, so long as they obey these guidelines.

Educational consultant Tony Buzan suggests the following considerations for mind mapping:

1. Start in the center with an image of the topic, using at least 3 colors.
2. Use images, symbols, codes, and dimensions throughout your Mind Map.
3. Select key words and print using upper or lower case letters.
4. Each word/image is best alone and sitting on its own line.
5. The lines should be connected, starting from the central image. The central lines are thicker, organic and flowing, becoming thinner as they radiate out from the centre.
6. Make the lines the same length as the word/image they support.
7. Use multiple colors throughout the Mind Map, for visual stimulation and also to encode or group.
8. Develop your own personal style of Mind Mapping.
9. Use emphasis and show associations in your Mind Map.
10. Keep the Mind Map clear by using radial hierarchy, numerical order or outlines to embrace your branches.

Of course, to illustrate the benefits of mind mapping, I’ve also decided to record these in the form of a mind map, below. See which format you prefer (click to make it much bigger).

The above mind map was cobbled together using a fabulous, freely downloadable mind map tool called Xmind, which is available in both free and professional versions. It’s a great, feature-rich mind mapping tool. The interface is really easy to use (I created the map above in about ten minutes at the first time of asking) and you can create a wide variety of mind maps without getting stuck in complex options (you can even insert picture files like I did in the example). The mind maps can be shared, embedded on your blog or even exported as PDF, Word or PowerPoint files if you register.

I’m always looking for ways to enable my students to make effective maps of their writing and I’ll be introducing them to this tool after I’ve played around with it a bit more. As the title suggests, I’ll be seeking out more mind mapping tools and will present further episodes from my adventures as and when they occur!

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