Converting ideas to a MindMap

It is that time of the year here. The end of year exams are looming for our year 12 students and some are looking for good ways to revise. and study. They want to put down what they know, how things connect and they need to be able to explain in their own words. Working with our senior students and trying to gauge what techniques might help them we came across Text 2 Mindmap.

There are many mapping tools but this offered some students a simple visual diagram that could act as a very good summary of ideas and connections.

It is a very straightforward tool and easy to use where you do the work/thinking then create the mind maps by simply typing out your ideas and using the tab key to create the different levels.

All you need to do is simply replace the text that is on the site (months of the year) with your own ideas.

Enter your ideas (3 levels) with :

1. Main idea at the top,
2.  Related but subordinate ideas below are indented using tabs
3. ideas connected to these entered by using tab again.

Click on ‘convert to mind’ map and it is done. Choosing the options, you can change the position, font, colour and lines allows you to personalise the mind map.

You can the save the map, convert it to a PDF  and download it or share the image via Facebook and twitter very easily.

A second tool some students chose to use was Mind42. On this you can add icons, links, notes and other such attachments easily. It is more complex than Text 2 Mindmap and therefore allows you to create more complex maps. It is also a tool you can use as a collaborativel tool. These were good but I like the simplification of ideas in the previous tool. You can download the mind maps as JPEG, PNG, RTF and some other format files.

Another mind mapping tool that some tried and liked was Mindomo. They liked the option that lets you search YouTube videos, add images, videos or audio with the exist URLs, upload attachment, and add a lot of symbols. You can export these mind maps in PDF, Image, RTF and some other format files. You can also use it on ipads and android devices, windows and apple OS. # maps for free and after that there are paid versions.

A video I found useful for students to watch was the 3-minute video below. It also showed how Prezi could be used in a mind mapping presentation.