What are Mind Maps?
Graphic organizers, or “mind maps,” make thinking visual, organizing concepts in a way that shows how they are related. Decades of research has shown that when graphic organizers are incorporated into instruction, student learning improves.
The tools presented here make it possible to create these organizers, or mind maps, with text, images, videos, and links to outside sources, making them a rich multimedia experience. They also allow multiple users to work on the same map simultaneously, even from different locations..
Gonzalez, Jennifer. "Mind Mapping." The Teacher's Guide to Tech 2019, pp. 188-193.
Teacher Uses
- Present content to students with mind maps, showing it as visual support for a lecture, at the beginning of a unit, or to illustrate a difficult concept.
- Assess student understanding with a mind map. For example, students could be given a list of terms and build a mind map to show the relationships between those terms.
- Use mind maps to brainstorm with students, either on a content-based topic or to solve a classroom problem.
- When introducing a unit to students, show them how the parts of the unit fit together with a graphic organizer. Not only will this give them a sense of where you are in the unit at any given time, it should also help them understand why they are learning the individual parts.
- Put common classroom rules or procedures into graphic organizer form, which will help students remember them better.
- Conduct retrieval practice sessions by having students “brain dump” everything they can remember about a topic into a graphic organizer.
Student Uses
- Use as a pre-writing tool, organizing ideas along with supporting details prior to drafting.
- Think through a complex topic with a mind map. After learning about an event in history, for example, build a map that outlines its causes and effects, adding additional resources for support.
- Use a graphic organizer to illustrate a complex topic in an informational or expository writing piece.
- Use mind maps to outline text structures while reading. Research has shown that when students study text structures before and during reading, their comprehension improves.
Tech Tool #1: Coggle
Coggle is a pretty basic mind mapping tool, but for creating clear, distraction-free maps, it gets the job done quickly and easily. Users sign into Coggle using their Google accounts. Once inside, you can begin mapping immediately: Instructions appear right in the sidebar to help you add or remove branches, change color schemes, or move things around. You can also upload images to illustrate concepts, choose an icon from Coggle’s icon library, or link an item to an outside website.
You can make your mind map really, really big, zooming out to view the big picture, then in to get a closer look. If you’d like to invite others to collaborate, you can share the Coggle with an email invitation, or invite them from within the Google platform. When your Coggle is finished, you can send people to it with a direct link, share it on Facebook or Twitter, embed it in a website, or download it as a PDF or PNG file. To explore all the possibilities, check out the Coggle Gallery, where other users’ mind maps are on display.
- Website: coggle.it
- Difficulty: Easy
- Platform: Web. Requires a Google account. Can also be added to Google Drive as a connected app.
- Price: Free for basic use. Advanced features
available for a fee. - Video Introduction: https://youtu.be/iL40u0uNYa8
Tech Tool #2: Lucidchart
With lots of templates and a simple drag-and-drop system, Lucidchart is one of the sleekest, most intuitive, easiest to use mind mapping tools out there. When using one of the templates, each component is fully customizable, from shapes to colors to layout. You can add pieces and delete what’s unnecessary.
Users also have the option to start with a completely blank canvas, setting default options like font and color for the rest of the chart. Images and links can be added, and users can integrate their charts with Google Drive, PowerPoint, Slack, and lots of other tools.
Charts are easily shared with a link, and users can collaborate on a chart in real time, just like they would with a Google Doc.
- Website: lucidchart.com
- Difficulty: Easy
- Platform: Web, iOS, Android
- Price: Free for basic use; many pricing options available.
- Video Introduction: https://youtu.be/JMuys5DyunE
Tech Tool #3: Popplet
What seems at first to be a very simple, basic mind mapping tool, Popplet actually offers quite a few advanced features that allow users to build rich, multimedia mind maps. Popplets’ maps are comprised of “popples,” bubbles that contain some kind of content and are linked together.
Popples can contain text, uploaded images, hand-drawn sketches, and even embedded videos, which you can search for without ever leaving the site. To build a hierarchy, popples can be color-coded, resized, and moved around, so that as your mind map grows, concepts can be reorganized. You can zoom in to get an up-close view of specific areas of the map, or zoom out to see the big picture.
Popplet makes sharing and collaboration super easy. Each Popplet map is given a unique URL, so users can share the link with others. You can also add collaborators to a map, and people can attach comments to individual popples or add new popples of their own. When a Popplet map is finished, it can be printed, shared via Facebook and Twitter, or exported as a PDF or PNG, making it easy for students to submit their maps to teachers.
- Website: popplet.com
- Difficulty: Easy
- Platform: Web, iOS
- Price: Free for limited use. More features available with monthly or yearly plans. The iOS app is $4.99.
- Video Introduction: https://youtu.be/HdGbELqaIYk
Tech Tool #4: Sketchboard
The first thing you’ll notice about Sketchboard is that it actually looks like a sketch, as if someone drew it by hand. This makes it feel like you’re working on paper, but better, because it’s all saved in the cloud.
Sketchboard has a lot of the same features and functionality as the other mind mapping tools in this section: Users can collaborate on the same sketch, you can add unlimited items to a map, and individual parts can be moved around at will. But the items can take all kinds of shapes: squares, circles, computer screens, people; you have over 50 icons to choose from.
If your idea can’t be represented with one of the icons from the Sketchboard library, you can just switch to the freehand tool and draw it yourself. This makes your map a whole lot more visual, so your ideas become even clearer. Another nice touch: Sketchboard is integrated with Google Drive, so you can open a sketch from right inside your Drive, then go back into it later and edit it. It’s also integrated with Slack, so if you use that for group discussion, you can also use Sketchboard maps to enhance the collaboration.
- Website: sketchboard.io
- Difficulty: Moderate
- Platform: Web, iOS (or as a connected app in
Google Drive) - Price: Free for limited use with public projects; paid
plans available. - Video Introduction: https://youtu.be/W7eOC2tQguA