I love idea mapping or mind mapping as some call it. I create these little maps for EVERYTHING! It’s a great organizational tool for me and for many students. For those who haven’t used them a mind map is a diagram used to represents ideas or concepts (or other things) that are linked together and are around a central idea or word. They are great classification tools as well as studying and organizing tools. Wikipedia lists other ideas as well: generate, visualize, structure, and classify ideas, and as an aid in … problem solving, decision making, and writing.
The biggest problem with mind mapping is that you usually need software that will let you do it and that normally costs money. Money, which as students and educators, we don’t normally have. Well now there are several free and fully online applications that make this possible. My favorite by far is bubbl.us. I like this one because I like to put initial ideas down and then easily reorganize them later, once they are all down. 
Many online apps don’t let you do this but bubbl.us does. You can very easily change connections or make new ones with the drag of a mouse. Like I said there are others out there you may want to look at. Different ones will appeal to different organizational styles. Check out:
Mindmeister – http://www.mindmeister.com/
Freemind – http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
Wikipedia had a huge list of other applications.
What makes these online versions so great is the sharing and collaboration that is available. Bubbl.us allows the creator to either share their maps as view only or they can invite specific people to join them in the creation of the map. This makes them great for group work or group project planning, especially when no one can meet at the same time. They are worth a look. Let me know what you think.
Tags: New Stuff, Uncategorized by benignim
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