Brainstorming with Mind Maps

Dean Timby of the Business Department at Bucks County Community College asked me to appear at their department's summer retreat to show the faculty the technique of Mind Mapping. The goal was two-fold: to learn about a new tool to brainstorm ideas for the department's future, and to make the point that Mind Maps would be a fun and effective tool to use with their students. This was a different kind of Mind Map presentation for me as the emphasis was really to get the 27 faculty members to brainstorm ideas for their department, and Mind Maps were just a means to an end.

Members of the BCCC Business Dept. take a break from their hard work to pose for a photo.
(Photo by Linda McCann)

I started with an abbreviated version of my typical Mind Mapping with Margaret presentation, emphasizing that Mind Maps are a great way to organize information instead of using lists and outlines. I showed some samples of Mind Maps I've actually used for reading, writing, and speaking. (Yes, I was using a Mind Map for this very presentation.) One of the participants beat me to this point: many K-12 students already use Mind Maps or similar techniques. When they get to college, many already know how to put their ideas down in a mind map or other configuration, and the rest catch on quickly. Why not let them know this is a perfectly acceptable and effective way to start a project? It's the perfect tool for visual learners because they can draw pictures and use colors to "own" the information and make their Mind Map reflect their own thinking. Here's a screencast (ScreencastOMatic.com) of the introductory Prezi I used:

In many of the workshops I've facilitated, participants have a hard time going from a blank sheet of paper to a simple first Mind Map. I thought I'd circumvent that here by supplying this group with the beginning of a Mind Map (including branches for the five areas their dean wanted them to brainstorm) that they could add their ideas to. I made sure they knew that I wouldn't be insulted if they flipped the paper over and made a list of outline if they just weren't feeling the Mind Map thing, but most went ahead and completed the Mind Map. Here's what I gave them to start:

Participants used these Mind Maps as they worked in small groups. At this point, they had launched into lively discussions about their department, and it was no easy task to bring them back so that we could create some electronic Spiderscribed Mind Maps that they can continue to use for departmental planning. At this point I was just listening and typing. Here's a piece of one of those (I don't want to give away all their secrets):

Whether they use Mind Maps in the future or not, we enjoyed a successful brainstorming session today! I like to think that Mind Maps and thinking about how we think and learn sparked some of the exciting ideas they came up with!

Glogster Works for Visual Organization

Glogster is a free, snazzy-looking, online poster-making tool that can be used to organize information visually. I had to create an assignment for a Media Literacy Institute I attended this year using social media tools. I used Glogster for the front part, incorporating an Xtranormal video explaining the assignment, then showing the phases of the assignment (finding, evaluating, and using information ethically) graphically, and ultimately linked out to an example of a finished assignment. I used Prezi for this (also a great free tool for visual organizers) and featured Screenr and Evernote. I thought it looked pretty cool and covered the assignment well.

Click on the following link, then follow the arrows. At the end, the Glog should link to the Prezi where you'll have to advance manually, clicking on the triangle.

http://margaretmontet.glogster.com/il-assignment/

Don't Worry, Hand-Drawn Mind Maps, I'll Defend You

Something happened this week that made me think of the hand-drawn mind maps that I use in an educational presentation propelled by some snazzy technology. My presentation has been well-received, and I have a few engagements coming up in the near future. The content was there first: mind maps, other visual organization tools, and how they can help a person get to higher thinking and deeper learning. The snazzy technology (especially Prezi, a visual organizer itself) was carefully selected afterwards in order to highlight the content. My concern is that this is not always the case, and too often the content serves the technology rather than the other way around. The zeitgeist of education is changing and there's less pedagogy, less intellectual curiosity, and an emphasis on technology.

I use technology in all of my presentations, or I would run the risk of appearing extremely dry. I've endured the paper-presenting-conference scene and hope to never have to do that again. (For the uninitiated, this is where you write a scholarly paper, submit it to a conference, and if selected, show up at the appointed time and literally read the paper to a captive audience.) Today's more engaging technology-laced presentations are a better use of time, as long as the technology serves the content. Prezi, the popular presentation software with which I have replaced PowerPoint, looks cool with its zooming and spinning, but it also serves as an organizing device. Animated Xtranormal videos and Glogster posters get the "listener's" attention to be sure, but the content has to be ready to take over.

My content is mind maps, content maps, knowledge maps and other examples of visual organizations and explanations of information. Most of these are my own, and most of these are hand-drawn. One of the points I make in my presentation is that these tools are extremely helpful for visual and kinesthetic learners. I believe I am a combination of these and that the very act of drawing these maps and assigning colors helps me remember, organize, and make connections.

My goal is to help my listeners and readers find ways to organize, remember, and schedule and attain higher-level thinking and deeper learning with these tools The hand-drawn techniques will work better for some. The problem is that I perceive, especially through the "perfect storm" of events this week, that there is an aversion to non-electronic learning objects and ideas. The pendulum of teaching has swung to the extreme, a focus on technology rather than learning. I'm hoping that pendulum will come to rest in the center where the focus will be on using these snazzy technologies to create more effective teaching and learning.

Here's a piece of visual technology with a pendulum in it because this post has no other pictures.

The New Presentation

I tried out my new, improved Mind Map presentation on Thursday to an audience of seven: five K-12 teachers, one college professor, and one professor emeritus. I'm pleased with the response and glad I decided to use the Prezi presentation embedded in my previous post here as the vehicle to propel the show. I was also able to make the point that mind maps, Prezi and Twitter are all tools that get right to the good stuff (the heart of the matter). Always the jokester, I pointed out that in high school and college I was never able to pad my essay answers with "BS" as most of the other students did. My answers tended to be concise and rather short. (My friends will tell you that my storytelling is not, however.) This is why I love mind maps, Prezi and Twitter: they eliminate the extra padding and get to the core concepts.

Since my attendees were all teachers, I threw in another point. I showed them how mind maps (and other visual organizations of information) help a visual learner make connections and attain deeper learning, climbing up the ladder of Bloom's Taxonomy (usually also represented with a visual). I showed them the mind map I used to organize my essay about the Delaware Bay into a rondo form. I never would have thought to do that while staring at a bunch of linear notes. And then there was the mind map I created when my book club read the book Snow in August by Pete Hamill. I portrayed the various characters in my mind map as heroes or villains as the young narrator did and then realized that there was also a recurring theme of fairy tales running through the text. Many details from the boy's life had to do with the Brooklyn Dodgers, so those got their own mind map branch. Without the experience of making a mind map, I don't think I would have made the connections between the fairy tale and Dodger details.

I told the group about the time I helped my goddaughter with a science fair project on the fruit fly. I hoped this story would convince them that mind maps are a help to any age learner. (We grasp the concept of pictures way before we learn language.) Hope had done some fruit fly research at school and I had gathered a few things for her. I debated whether I should introduce her to mind maps to organize all of her information. I decided to watch how she approached the task and was delighted to see that she started with a mind map! She called it something else (the nomenclature is somewhat elastic), but it was without a doubt a mind map. That story was a hit.

The Periodic Table of Visualization Methods (http://www.visual-literacy.org/periodic_table/periodic_table.html) provoked an audible reaction as did my Delicious.com link loaded with resources (http://delicious.com/margaretmontet/mindmaps). Among the many positive comments at the end, one teacher told me she was going to try mind maps to organize her students. If nothing else, I gave these teachers some practical, usable ideas to take back to their classrooms in September.

Click here for a link to a Prezi slideshow of selected mind maps and other types of visualizations.

It took me awhile to figure Prezi out. After seeing many sharp-looking scholarly presentations that used Prezi instead of PowerPoint, I thought I should get serious about shedding the "Death-by-PowerPoint" look. It took me a few hours of solid experimentation to create something usable, but I like what I have. I'll be debuting it later this month at a mind mapping presentation for K-12 educators, and I am expecting as many questions about Prezi as about mind maps. Take a look (but remember on this small screen the mind maps are teeny):

Mind Mapping on Prezi