BY BILL FERRIS
Scribblar makes student collaboration really easy. It presents users a large white canvas and arms them with an array of pencils, line and shape tools, and colors. Students can add images easily as well, either by uploading photos or by inserting snapshots of websites. These functions are all very intuitive, even for folks without a lot of graphics experience.
Inspiration is the gold standard for mind-mapping and graphic organization, and until recently, has been a licensed program tied to a machine. The company has followed the crowd to the cloud, and recently released MyWebspiration, a web-based version of the software you either have and love, or have seen and heard about and want to have a chance to love. If you are in the latter group, here’s your opportunity to get in on some Inspiration action.
Like just about any cloud-based program, you do need to create an account. Once you’ve done that, MyWebspiration is almost identical to Inspiration, although there are a few added features. Collaborating is made easier (collaborators will also need an account) and you can publish your finished product to the web, too. All of the great features of the original Inspiration are still there: toggling between mind map and outline view (a great way to teach outlining skills, by the way), templates, Rapid Fire mode, and lots of clip art to keep the kids happy. The layout and functions work virtually the same as the licensed version.
MyWebspiration is in free, public beta right now, and will eventually be a subscription service, so give it a whirl for free while you can. Make a graphic argument for why you (or your district) should pony up for the subscription while you’re there. -GRETCHEN SCHAEFER
Those are some Lovely Charts you’ve got there
When making diagrams the old fashioned way, if you’re not careful you can ugly up what should be a simple process. White boards and paper easels fill up quickly, and the combination of bad handwriting and thick markers can obfuscate the simplest ideas. And heaven help you if you try to create a diagram in Excel. If you use Lovely Charts, however, you can create clean, clear charts and diagrams that can easily communicate a process or idea.
You or your students can use Lovely charts to show the family tree of characters in a novel, divvy up responsibilities for a class project, or even just put together a seating chart. The drag-and-drop functionality makes it easy to create, arrange and edit symbols and labels on your chart, which makes it more likely that if you look at your chart tomorrow, it’ll still make sense to you.
On their website, Lovely Charts claims,”Lovely Charts is easy…And sexy!” I wouldn’t go so far as to call a diagramming program sexy. It is free, however, which is pretty attractive to a cheapskate like me. Lovely charts gives you a nice-looking way to share your ideas. -BILL FERRIS
Share diagrams and mind maps online with Gliffy
Mind Mapping Made Simple with Mindomo
What’s your classroom layout? Do you have the desks in classic row setup? U-shaped? Circle? Whichever setup you’re currently rocking, maybe you should think of switching things up a little. A change of scenery is a great way to recharge your brain and your students’ brains. Maybe even add some plants for atmosphere.
What you shouldn’t do, however, is start changing up things without planning ahead. You don’t want to end up moving all those desks and chairs only to find out that you made a poor estimate. Make a floor plan using Gliffy.
Gliffy is more than just a floor planning app; Gliffy offers up many more charts and plans to help you organize and share your thoughts. Everything I’ve written above was just to bait and hook you. It also made it relevant to the classroom and allowed me to incorporate that funny link.
While its similar to a lot of mind mapping apps out there, Gliffy outshines them by lending more attention to providing better design details to the shapes and images used in diagrams, plans and charts. Don’t believe me? Check out this example of a network diagram. It is much more engaging for the viewer, and it makes you look even more professional. -NICK YINGLING
Mind Mapping Made Simple with Mindomo
I’d really like to use some mind maps. I know I can benefit from using one, but I really don’t have the time to sit down and think one up and then design it and then oh great its 3 a.m. and I’ve got to wake up for work in a few hours.
Pay a visit to Mindomo. Now you’ll be free to stay up late working while filling actual content into the thousands of already created templates - spread out across several different topics and several different languages. -NICK YINGLING
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Brainstorming is a Breeze with bubbl.us
Branch Out Your Thinking with Exploratree
I have long held the belief that a British accent is the best way to sound intelligent and credible. The problem that I run into is that my impersonation of a British accent is so bad that I end up looking less intelligent and credible to people who hear my attempts. I need to think of a solution!
Exploratree is a great place to help me with my project. Not only do they offer a multitude of interactive thinking-guides, but they are also UK-based. Here in the States we call this sort of thing “mind-mapping,” so when you refer to these resources with Exploratree’s terminology you’ll ooze with intelligence and credibility.
The ability to share resources online lets students log in and contribute to a group project anytime, anywhere. Think about how much time you might set aside for your students to work on group projects during class time. Now think about what you can get done in all that time that Exploratree just helped you claim back. –NICK YINGLING
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Brainstorming is a Breeze with bubbl.us
From what I can tell, Mind Mapping is all the rage right now, and I should probably learn how to do it. In fact, you should, too. Lucky for us both, that information is made available at Brain Dance’s Meta Learning Handbook. The online walk-through is based on the information in Patrick T. McGee’s Brain Dancing handbook. Ideal for students, Mind Mapping is a great visual way of processing input and doling out clean, organized output. It’s a tool that can be used to help you read more efficiently and retain more information on what you’ve read.
Using this visual-based way of thinking, “Brain Dancing” will help you also improve your memory and learning skills. We’d love to hear from anyone who has given this a try, or if you want to be a guinea pig and test it out. Let us know if this site has your gray matter doing the cha-cha. -JEREMY S. GRIFFIN
Ever used a mind map? They can be fun ways to brainstorm new ideas. Their best feature is they’re designed to mimic the way the human mind works - that is, jumping from one idea to another. Thanks to free online mind-mapping tools like bubbl.us, your brain can jump around to your heart’s content.
Bubbl.us makes mind mapping easy and interactive, which is vital to brainstorming - a slow or clunky interface could lead to stifled creativity or lost ideas. But bubbl.us makes adding new ideas as simple as hitting your Tab and Enter keys.
Best of all, you can collaborate online by sharing your bubbl.us mind map with others, or save it as an image and email it to colleagues. In your classroom, bubbl.us is an ideal way to brainstorm class projects, fundraising ideas, field trip plans, or simply as an excuse to get students to work together. -BILL FERRIS
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