Why is MindMeister a better ‘research organizer’ than Google Docs?

  1. It is non-linear.
  2. Sections of the mind map can be ‘closed’ to allow the focus to be upon sections that need to be addressed.
  3. It allows images and videos to be embedded within the structure.
  4. You can add (annotated) connections between ideas.
  5. The ability to ‘playback’ the sequence in which the mind map was created which can help in the process of student reflection.
  6. The ability to easily create ‘tasks’ from parts of the mind map to help structure further developments and the write up.

MindMeister

 

All staff and students at International School of Geneva - Campus des Nations can have a MindMeister account linked to the Foundation's subscription.

  1. Go to mindmeister.com > Sign Up > Click on the red G (Google) > use your school @learning.ecolint.ch or @ecolint.ch to login.
  2. You may have the word ‘Upgrade’ in the top left hand corner of the screen. To ‘upgrade’ to a full account as part of the Ecolint subscription you need to follow a link given to you by the TLC - just email and ask for it before the lesson and share it with the students via email or ManageBac.

Students can share their mind maps with the teacher so that progress can be monitored and fed back upon.

Teachers can create a template to help structure the process.

  1. This template needs to be exported (in MindMeister format), shared with the students via Google Drive, email or ManageBac and then imported by the students.

Key MindMeister skills

  1. Creating a new mind map (the Blank template is best, in my opinion)
  2. Adding a child idea
  3. Adding a sibling idea
  4. Adding a relationship between two ideas
  5. Adding an image to an idea
  6. Adding a video to an idea
  7. Adding a note to an idea
  8. Adding a link to an idea
  9. Adding an attachment to an idea

Support

  1. Video Tutorials
  2. MindMeister Academy