Mindmapping tools helps you learning

An old but still very impressive method that can be used within learning situations is Mindmapping. It visually represents a semantic network or mental model. The technique can be used by learners e.g. to make notes during college and I'm also using it as a trainer when I'm want to have a fast and clear image of the prior knowledge of the learners. For the last matter I'm using it with the whole group together on a whiteboard or beamer.

I'm facilitating the process with electronic tools since 5 years. I started with good old MindManager. A very sophisticated piece of Mindmapping software. You can easily relocate branches and it can be exported as HTML files and also it can be used during presentations instead of PowerPoint. With the extended version of MindManager you can connect to Outlook, Word, PowerPoint and Project.

With the Mac I was using MindManager again. But the functionalities of the OS X version where much more limited compared to the Windows version I was using on my other laptop. Now I found a better solution and it is one of the many open source Mindmapping tools. It is called FreeMind and it works just fine. For Windows, OS X and Linux. You can do almost everything and it can export to almost every possible format. And…it also imports MindManager files.



If you want you can also use online Mindmapping tools. The great thing about that is the possibilities to work together with your colleagues or co-students on the same mindmap. A good online tool is Mindomo. So, if you never used one of the Mindmapping techniques and/or Mindmapping tools: give it a try.

You can find more on Mindmapping on wikipedia.