I’m pretty adept at the more standard visualization tools. I can make charts, graphs, tables, and diagrams to help illustrate an idea. I’ve come across several references to mindmapping recently, and I was curious if it could do a better job capturing complex relationships, or if it was at least a useful tool to learn.
Unfortunately, if I just do a search and start hunting for information, I get more sales pitches for software than useful information. The mindjet web page was the best of the lot, but their ‘free trial’ download isn’t working.
Does anyone use mindmapping? What can you tell me about it?
Mind mapping is a technique for note taking that helps one to better remember a concept. It was developed by Tony Buzan. More information can be found here. I’ve been trained in the basic concepts of mindmapping, but haven’t done it in years.
Using software seems to be cheating, IMO. AFAIK, the goal of minmapping is to engage different parts of the brain that standard notetaking doesn’t (you know, the seven intelligences theory and all) and to serve as an aid to recall rather than a strict list of things you should remember.
Every now and then I use mindmapping while reading books. Generally, I start with the title of the book in the center of the page and have a first-level branch for each chapter. Each section that has something noteworthy in it goes out to a second-level branch and any salient points that I’m not likely to remember on my own get a third-level branch of their own. Multiple points following from one topic get their own branches.
In theory, you should be using lots of pictures and different colors, but it’s a matter of preference. It’s certainly another method of keeping notes, but may or may not work for you. I like it.
I started a kind of half-assed one with my current reading. If you’d like, I’ll post a link to the image or a previous one.
I just attended a senior enlisted leadership academy, and they taught us mind-mapping for the purposes of writing essays. It was explained to us exactly as Chairman Pow just described. To be honest, it seemed to work pretty well. Quite a few of my classmates used it with excellent results. For many of us, essay writing is a very uncommon task, so mind mapping came in quite handy.
Maybe I’m misusing the tool. I don’t so much want to take my own notes, I understand the topics already. I want to make maps to teach others how some complex relationships work, and do it in way that is eye catching and memorable.
You can certainly use it for that as well, but it won’t necessarily be as effective as it would be for using it on your own study. One of the things that the MM people keep harping on is how personal it is.
What will you be using it for? If you’re just turning an outline into a goofy format it may or may not help, depending on the learning preferences of the audience. As long as you’re handing it out as an adjunct to another source (say, a lecture) you should be fine, especially if the audience can look at the MM during the lecture. If you’re just giving it out as a substitute for said lecture, it will likley be meaningless, especially if your audience has no idea about the topic.
To test it out, use this free Java App: www.mayomi.com. It’s fairly limited, but you will get an idea of what things’ll look like when you work them out. It’ll be fairly easy to tweak (although the save function sucks, but it’s been awhile since I used this so it may have been fixed).
As far as misusing it, unless you’re trying to use it to drive a car, I think you’ll be fine.
I use a tool called Freemind fairly often – search for “Freemind download” and take the first hit. It’s free, open source if you’re into such things, rather limited in functionality, but should give you an idea of the method and tools. It’s reasonably intuitive; the download page will give you enough to get started. It’s Java, so it runs pretty much anywhere, and has a doohicky that lets you export your maps to the web.
That said, I’ve not found it (the tool, not the technique, which I don’t know much about) as useful as I thought I would. Every time I start a “project” in it, I end up deciding a more specific tool is better, and switch.
I think it’s best use would be as a sort of “map” to hierarchically organized data - a help file, web site map, or something similar. Using the ability for nodes to link to hard documents and URL’s has to solve SOME problem…just not one I’ve come across yet. Your mileage may vary.
Chairman Pow is right. It doesn’t seem to work as well if you do it on the computer using “Mindmapping” software.
To be most effective it should be on a large piece of paper and done with many different color markers. It is an extremely effective tool, but it does require some overhead to do it properly. If I were taking a class I might consider using it again.
