Friday, September 24, 2010

Graphic Organizers/Mindmap Applications

The three mindmapping applications I chose include the following:

Bubbl.us
  • Free & collaborative
  • Create online
  • Share, email, or print your mindmap
  • Embed on website, blog, or wiki
  • Save your mindmap as an image file
Webspiration
  • Free & collaborative
  • Create online
  • A few more "bells & whistles" - can change basic text boxes into different shapes & pictures
  • Change between outline view and graphic organizer view depending on learning style & needs
Mindmeister
  • Free & collaborative
  • Create online
  • Even more "bells & whistles" - depending on the word/phrase in the textbox, it will search & find images, videos, and links that match for an easy addition or customization of your mindmap
  • Can make your mindmap public or private
  • iPhone app & available on Google Apps Marketplace

It was interesting that as I looked at each application, they progressively got more and more advanced (for lack of a better term). Bubbl.us seems very basic with Webspiration building in a few more "bells & whistles" like customizing the look/feel of the textboxes. Mindmeister takes Webspiration one step further by creating an application that tries to "think" for you. What do I mean? The software actually looks for images, videos, or links online that relate to the word/phrase in the textbox. All three applications are easy to use, free, meant to be collaborative, and are available via the Internet. A feature that I really like about Webspiration is the ability to switch between the mindmap view to the outline view iwht a click of a button. However, my overall recommendation goes to Mindmeister. I like the "forward thinking" of the application & think it is really neat it suggests and predicts information or images that relate to the information in the mindmap.

No comments:

Post a Comment