Creating mind maps using your iPad

One of the forthcoming training sessions will look at the simple ways for you or students to create mind maps using the iPad. You will find several apps that do the job – one I have used is Mindjet (free) – a simple tool to create (simple) mind maps like the one attached to this post.

Why and when would you want to create a mind map?

Mind maps help structure your thinking about a particular problem, topic, discussion. It highlights the structure of your thinking, and the relationship between various components of it. I tend to use mind maps to structure my own presentations (the one linked to this post refers to a research conference presentation). I also create a mind map in the hour that precedes most of my lectures – I find them useful to remind myself of the structure of the lecture. Whether you might be interested in producing these maps depends on your way of approaching your lecture: I never bring notes with me in the lecture theatre, so mind maps play an important role for me. If I held a single document with me while lecturing, it would probably be a mind map for the session I was attempting to deliver!

Mindjet is easy to use. To start, create a new map by pressing the + icon on the top left hand side of the screen (in mindjet), give it a title and save it somewhere. Then long press anywhere on the screen and a pop up will appear: enter some text or an image (which you can take from your iPad’s camera, or that you import from your Camera Roll). Then press anywhere on the screen and your first piece of text or image will appear on the map. Hold it, and a set of arrows will appear, enabling you to link a second piece of text (or image) to the first one. And so on… We will cover it in one of the forthcoming training sessions.

Connectivity

I find Mindjet useful, not because it is a powerful app (it is pretty simple, but then my mind maps tend to be pretty simple!) but because the connectivity options are pretty useful:

– email to yourself (or anyone): once you have created your map, press the Share icon to email the structure of your mind map to yourself or anyone else. It will also automatically attach a pdf version of the mind map

– save in your dropbox: Mindjet can save your  mind maps into a dedicated folder on your dropbox, which means you will never lose it

Give it a try. It is an easy to use app, and the help file is designed like a mind map – click to expand individual topic and you will get started in no time.