Mind mapping is a great way of helping children to both organise and explore their ideas. Mind maps are beneficial as they have the dual function of allowing children to both generate new ideas and recall information much more easily.
As well as this, they have the key benefit of removing the need for extensive writing, which for many children can act as a barrier to achievement. They are also a great way of encouraging collaboration in the classroom through the use of pair and team work to generate ideas. These can then be used to allow peer review where children can walk around and look at each other minds maps and share ideas and maybe also have a minute to add new ideas to other group’s mind maps.
In order to investigate mind mapping using ICT as opposed to the old traditional method of pen and paper, I explored mind mapping using the software FreeMind which is available for free on PC and Mac and I also tried an app called SimpleMind for the iPad, iPhone and Ipods as these are becoming increasingly popular in schools. (If you click on the logo to the right this will lead you to the FreeMind download website).
As well as this, they have the key benefit of removing the need for extensive writing, which for many children can act as a barrier to achievement. They are also a great way of encouraging collaboration in the classroom through the use of pair and team work to generate ideas. These can then be used to allow peer review where children can walk around and look at each other minds maps and share ideas and maybe also have a minute to add new ideas to other group’s mind maps.
In order to investigate mind mapping using ICT as opposed to the old traditional method of pen and paper, I explored mind mapping using the software FreeMind which is available for free on PC and Mac and I also tried an app called SimpleMind for the iPad, iPhone and Ipods as these are becoming increasingly popular in schools. (If you click on the logo to the right this will lead you to the FreeMind download website).
The images below depict where I have experimented with these two mind map programmes which are both free to use.
When creating my mind maps I decided to focus on the curriculum topic my group was allocated in humanities – the Victorians. I added to this mind map and came up with ideas, activities and resources to help children achieve to the best of their ability.
When creating my mind maps I decided to focus on the curriculum topic my group was allocated in humanities – the Victorians. I added to this mind map and came up with ideas, activities and resources to help children achieve to the best of their ability.
FreeMind allows for more choice with regard to being able to choose your own colours for the stalks and being able to add images to the mind map, as I have done in the picture below. I feel this gives the mind map another depth as children who may be visual learners are additionally benefited. Mind maps are a wonderful tool for generating ideas and I feel they would be useful for generating ideas for literacy, for e.g when preparing a story for a Big Write. I intend on making use of mind mapping in my practice as a means of encouraging pupils to produce ideas, especially for literacy.
I also experimented with the SimpleMind app. This app is very straightforward and simple to use. The colour of each of the stalks however is decided automatically, and this may affect the visual representation for the child as they may begin to confuse their ideas due to the same colours being repeated on the main stalks. (If you click on the logo to the right this will lead you to the SimpleMind website).
The app is very child-friendly and thus can be used with any class for a range of topics. The second image below shows the next step of mind mapping, which is adding to the main stalks with further ideas. The stalks which come of the main one are the same colour, and the further apart the new stalk is from the main stalk, the more the colour fades – thus it visually creates the image of details becoming more focused.
The mind map activity was useful as it was remarkable how easy the software was to use and how ideas can be organised visually and links can be made between ideas. As the use of the software makes the activity fun, it is easy not to focus too much on getting it right and more on coming up with different ideas. This would be particularly useful for children who worry about getting work and answers right and instead encourages them to be creative and imaginative in their thinking.
The mind map was also really useful in terms of helping me organise my ideas and the visual representation and images meant I was able to see the links between my ideas and come up a coherent plan. However, although the SimpleMind app was easier to use, as FreeMind can look confusing with all the icons, there is more choice available with this program as it allows users to add images to the mind map. If I was to use FreeMind in the classroom I would most likely implement it with KS2 pupils, whereas Simplemind could be used across KS1 and 2.
The mind map was also really useful in terms of helping me organise my ideas and the visual representation and images meant I was able to see the links between my ideas and come up a coherent plan. However, although the SimpleMind app was easier to use, as FreeMind can look confusing with all the icons, there is more choice available with this program as it allows users to add images to the mind map. If I was to use FreeMind in the classroom I would most likely implement it with KS2 pupils, whereas Simplemind could be used across KS1 and 2.
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The author and creator is not responsible for any content which may be encountered on internet sites linked to this site, including any content pushed at you by sites like YouTube.