This week for class we looked at different online tools for sorting out information and mind mapping. I did look at all the links provided by the teachers. I think I could use some of those, but not all of them. The first one I liked the most was Mindmeister. I like how the students can add notes just for the teacher can see them, they are allowed to be creative and make them look nice. It's very flexible if you wanted to move some information around or change your thoughts. Nice and easy to use this resource.
The next one I looked at was Exploreatree. This one reminds me of mind mapping but you can make it creative as well. You are allowed to add comments, reminders (like side notes), and add pictures. This reminds me of google doc and PowerPoint presentations. You can present and share this info all from notes. It's taking notes and presenting at the same time. No need to take notes on one page, put your thoughts on another then make a presentation. It's all done here, which is COOL!!! Exploratree is easy to use and play with. If you made a mistake all you have to do is hit the undo button or simple press the "x" to delete your mistake. You can also see other people comments and collaborate which makes it easy for students to work together. I like this one the BEST...
The last one I would like to talk about is the graphic organizers. Here you can find a lot of different type of mind maps to use. I remember starting off with these kind of organizers. This are more simple and boring to me. I think to keep a student more interesting, one should use exploratree or mindmeister. Its easy to write it but if you're using this document on the computer, I think it's more work. You have to make sure you are typing in the circles/squares.
After reading your review of Exploratree it sounds like I should really check this one out. I tried MindMeister, Webspiration, and Bubbl.us. I liked Webspiration the best out of those three but maybe it's because it seemed easy to me since I've used the Inspiration products fro so long. For ease of use and quick setup time Bubbl.us was easiest but I didn't see any collaboration, which is a bummer. Exploratree sounds like it has it's own niche with the presentation aspect. Thanks for the good review - it peaked my interest!!
ReplyDeleteI think that Exploratree has a lot of potential and you can do some neat things with it but I have a few issues about it.
ReplyDelete- The user interface is too small. There should be a way to make the work area larger.
- A person new to this will get confused looking at it. I did the first time around and decided to check it out again after reading your post. Every object has the little lock on it which makes it cluttered. Anyone who has done even minimal work with graphics knows that things about an object appear when you click on it. There is no need for those locks to always be visible but instead should only appear when the object is clicked on.
- If I have time, I'd check it out some more to see if the things I don't like are outweighed by its functionality.