We had an RSCtv session scheduled to run on the 9 April but I decided to do a screencast instead due to the Easter holidays. Mindmeister is a an online mindmapping tool.
You can watch the 19 minute screencast on Mindmapping with Mindmeister over on the LearnTech blog. If you’ve got any questions or queries don’t hesitate to get in touch.
If you are interested in how technology can break down barriers for all learners, including those with disabilities or learning difficulties, then this conference is for you.
Rewiring Inclusion: Strategies, tools and techniques to promote barrier-free learning is organised by the Association for Learning Technology (ALT) and JISC TechDis and will take place on February 9th 2010.
Guest speakers include Julian Harty from Google and Artur Ortega, the Accessibility Evangelist for Yahoo! Europe.
In the last few editions of NewsFeed we’ve highlighted Google Wave, Google’s new platform which enables users to have real-time interaction when collaborating on documents (see Google Wave in Two Minutes and 7 Things You Should Know About Google Wave).
Whilst Google weren’t the first to publicise the potential of real-time collaboration they have grabbed most of the headlines and we expect a number of new sites will appear in 2010. In the meantime readers might be interested in three existing sites which allow real-time collaboration with text, mind-maps and diagrams highlighted below:
Etherpad.com is a real-time collaborative text editing site, which hit the headlines recently when it was bought by Google and their entire team co-opted to the Google Wave project. Fortunately Google decided ‘to do no evil’ and quickly announced that people could still use the site until March 31st 2010 and that the code for etherpad would be made open source. The code for etherpad is now available for download and other users have already started hosting their own etherpad sites. This might be particularly appealing to institutions as they can take responsibility for logins, backups etc.
If you are interested in going down this route a couple of posts you might find useful are a very detailed installing etherpad guide and a discussion thread on ldap user authentication.
Mindmeister is an online collaborative mind mapping tool. The interface is very easy to use. Like mainly other web services it uses a ‘freeium’ model so the downside is that students will only be able to have 3 mind maps on the go at one time (but these can be exported as image, PDF or RTF). Below is a great video by Thomas N. Burg which highlights mindmeister’s basic functionality (nodes which flash red have been created by a co-collaborator).
Cacoo looks like it would be a great tool for computing students with ready made icons for networks, office equipment and design wireframes (and UML if that is your thing), the site may also have wider appeal with more generic shapes. As well as enabling real-time collaboration Cacoo also has some very useful other features like snap-align and connecting shapes together. The video below has a nice overview:
[Text from this post was taken from the RSC Scotland North & East Higher Education blog MASHe]
The aim of this guide is to promote awareness of open source and freeware Windows applications that can be used to support learners with additional needs. The overall collection of more than 50 programs is called AccessApps. In many cases, the programs on AccessApps are very similar in functionality to well-known commercial products.
The guide, which has been specially prepared for Disabled Students Allowance (DSA Assessors), is split into 7 sections: mind mapping, colour preferences, dictionary and thesaurus, text-to-speech, word prediction, visual support and voice recognition. Each section provides detailed information on 14 typical AccessApps applications.
We’re big fans of Mind Mapping at the RSC and have covered various tools in past editions of NewsFeed. ConceptDraw are currently giving away free licences for their previous version of their mindmapping tool, ConceptDraw MindMap 5. All you have to do is fill in this form and it will autogenerate the key for you. The older version is no longer available for download on the ConceptDraw website. You can still get it from dowload.com
It might look like another mind mapping program but Rationale is very different.
Although Rationale features many of the tools found in popular mind mapping programs it extends the planning and structuring stages by introducing tools to develop, evaluate and create convincing arguments.
To find out more visit the Rationale site and download your free evaluation copy
Earlier this year we featured the online mind mapping tool mindmeister which set the trend for web-based mind mapping applications which have two major benefits:the first is that you no longer necessarily need to buy software which is resident on your own PC but can simply link to the online site, the second is that you can share and develop the map online collectively with colleagues. Oh, and there is a third big plus – you can use the site, at least in a limited way, for no cost. Mapping has come a long way from a roll of wallpaper and a box of coloured pencils!
Two more online mapping applications have recently appeared:
Inspiration Software , the developer of the well-respected and widely used mind mapping program Inspiration, has just released the beta of a web-based version of its flagship product. Dubbed Webspiration, it does an admirable job of translating the well-designed Inspiration user interface to the web, while adding collaboration capabilities.
In The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy the answer to the meaning of life was of course 42. This online mapping software site maybe doesn’t offer answers to such profound questions but it’s a pretty powerful tool nonetheless. Browser-based, collaborative and available at no cost, click here to check out mind42.
A site with a no-nonsense title which delivers what it says on the tin. At this excellent site, created by English teacher Russell Stannard you’ll find a raft of training videos aimed to help teachers use common technologies in the classroom. Here you’ll find everything from PowerPoint to Photoshop, mind mapping to making online surveys – and all at no cost.
Yet another product joins the plethora of Mind Mapping software online, but this one has a subtle difference. Create a document in the normal way and divide it up into sections using tabbing or header styles. Then go to the Text2MindMap site, upload your document and wait as the map is assembled before your very eyes. Worth a look.
Look up words to find their meanings and associations with other words and concepts. Produce diagrams reminiscent of a neural net. Learn how words associate. Enter words into the search box to look them up or double-click a node to expand the tree. Click and drag the background to pan around and use the mouse wheel to zoom. Hover over nodes to see the definition and click and drag individual nodes to move them around to help clarify connections. Click here for the word on the street.