I found a great article on Robin Good’s blog that goes over several mindmapping tools in a guide format. Although not an extensive list and it doesn’t focus on user friendliness, it does highlight the major players and gives great unbiased overviews of the tools selected. I highly recommend reading the whole article as it is truly a great resource that I have already bookmarked and intend to go back to often.

In the near future I will give a more in-depth review of the usability and functions of some of the tools that Robin Good outlines in his article.

Mind Mapping Tools: Online Guide To Web-Based MindMap Drawing Services via kwout

Webspiration: Online Visual Thinking Tool | myWebspiration via kwout

myWebspiration is very robust and the most fully featured of the three mind mapping applications. The list of it’s capabilities is impressive and includes the ability to:

• add hyperlinks
• images
• color changing
• clip art (although I am against such things, but I am a graphic guy which makes me very picky)
• converting lists to mind maps
• line customization
• collapsible maps
• collaboration
• notes for specific bubbles
• etc.

So what’s not to like with this fantastic application that seems to do everything? Although it may seem like everything to everyone and has all the functionality of the first two I reviewed and more, all the functionality comes at a big cost, usability. It is, by far, the hardest application to use of the three and surprisingly doesn’t have a very robust export or embed feature. If you are OK with an extra 10 minutes of learning time though you can unlock much of the power of myWebspiration and create great mind maps.

My pick for best Mind Map tool is (drum roll can be heard in background) Bubbl.us! Why? It is the best blend of incredible ease of use and its collaborative nature. There may not be all the bells and whistle but it looks good and when I invite someone to come and use it I know they will be able to figure it out with little to no instruction.

How can mind maps be used in education?

1. quickly mapping out complex plans like websites, marketing plans, business plans,
2. A more visual way of representing a idea
3. Give an overview of a plot line of a story
4. show relationships between groups or individuals
5. show relationships between almost anything i.e. (galaxies, solar systems, planets, moons, asteroids) or (the food chain).
6. show a business hierarchy or any hierarchy for that matter.
7. Mind maps can increase creativity for any area (even mathematics) by helping you think outside the box and make associations that you may not have thought about before.

What are your ideas for how to use mind maps?

Text2MindMap

In part 2 of my mind-mapping tour I have chosen Text2MindMap. This is by far the easiest app to use as it is based purely on creating outlines. This online app takes your outline tree and creates a mind-map from the content therein. It also features the ability to paste an already created list in a handy text field so go ahead and use a different app like Word to create the list, copy it and paste it into the text field. It is that simple.

Of course there are the obligatory options that you can change like the colors but at it’s core it is just a pretty list. And that is also a downside of Text2MindMap it is a bit too sparse in its features. There is no collaborative aspect, you can’t embed it and the only exporting you are able to do is to a Jpeg format.

All in all it is the simplest tool I will review and that is it’s strength. If all you need is to visualize your outline then this is the fastest and easiest tool by far to use.

How can it be used in education?

Stay tuned to the 3rd part of my article trilogy to see how Mind mapping in general can be used in education.

Wanna Read part 1? Click here.

Part 1: Bubbl.us

bubbl.us – free web application for brainstorming online via kwout

This is part one of 3 articles based around online mind-mapping applications. These 3 articles will end with me giving my pick for the one I like best and why.

Part 1: Bubbl.us

This mind mapping application is the probably the easiest to use and to enable the collaborative aspect right away. All you need to do is sign up and make friends with a colleague or student that has an account with Bubbl.us and give them editing access. Of course you can also only give them viewing access in case you don’t want them to muck about in your hard work

It works very much like any other mind mapping application but doesn’t have the functionality of putting links, documents or other items like that into any of the bubbles but that is the charm in my mind the utmost of simplicity.

Bubble.us has very much a web 2.0 look with glossy bubbles that contain your content.The creation of the whole map doesn’t even require using the mouse very much as all the functions for creating new bubbles can be done with the keyboard.

It also has the functionality of being able to export to an HTML page, embed directly in a website or print to an image.

All in all Bubbl.us is the tool that I tend to use the most because of its ease of use, collaborative aspects, control over group access, and the export functionality.

How can Bubbl.us be used in education?

Stay tuned to the 3rd part of my article trilogy to see how Mind mapping in general can be used in education.

Wanna Read Part 2? Click Here.