Mindmaps and flowcharts

Out of the suggested mind mapping tools and flowcharts I decided to give Coggle a test. It looked rather nice for a free tool. Turns out, it is. I really like it for the simple fact that you can just start creating without any major fuss. Log in, and you’re ready to go. Unlike some free tools out there Coggle is also visually pleasing and doesn’t look “cheap”.  When it comes to explaining a complex concept I can see this tool being pretty good. You have the ability to branch out in a structured and well presented manner. Making the flow of information very easy to follow, read and understand.

source: Flickr – Kevin Gilmour

One tool that was not mentioned but I came across previously is Popplet. I like this tool a lot. Its very simple to use, the fact that you can embed YouTube & Vimeo videos into the “popplet” adds another dimension to flowcharts / mind maps for me. This app is also available on the Apple devices, so you can access and create your popplets on the move!

In one of my training sessions I suggested this as a revision tool for students. The way I see it is; if a student was studying ‘continents of the world’ they could create a popplet with the continents listed and add notes, drawings and videos to each continent for future reference. So when it comes to revision, all they have to do is go onto the popplet and all their notes and useful videos will be in one place! I think that’s much better than a notebook, but that might be due to my poor notebook organisation skills! Check out my example here: http://popplet.com/app/#/2587009

You can even have a go without signing up: http://popplet.com/app/#/demo

Inquiry based learning

Although I do not teach as such, I have often ran training session in which I’ve implemented Inquiry based learning. A brief outline of what the session would be like goes as follows:

1. Introduce session and main objective
2. Split up into groups (size depends on number of attendees)
3. Create a task / scenario and ask attendees to create a thought-shower using an online app as a group. Usually limit this to 10/15 minutes to minimize distractions.
4. Provide attendees a link to Popplet which will allow them to create their thought-shower (as well as to save and / or export it)
5. After time is up, ask all to submit their answers into Moodle where all submissions can be viewed and discussed in class.
6. Summarise and conclude the session.

I do find that this type of teaching takes a little setting up prior to the session, but this is out-weighted by the participation and engagement of the attendees.