Mind Mapping

We use mind mapping a lot at home anyway but usually with a pen and paper. The kids use it to work out what they are taking on holidays or camps etc. I decided to give the online free one a go and it wasn't as easy or creative or as quick as doing it by hand. I had difficulty in loading it into the blog (eventually worked out you had to save it as a jpeg) taking me quite awhile whilst I was supposed to be doing other things! However it was fun and maybe I would get better at it and maybe if you had a few kids working on a project it would be fun. I suppose you could use Vyer instead or I am sure there are many more. As a brain storming activity (does anyone still use that term?) you could use a mind map to get thoughts and ideas down and then organise them into areas like de Bono's thinking hats. I wonder if you could get students to use mind mapping to work out the ethical and issues associated with mobile phone use in the class room; coming up with a set of boundaries that suited both themselves and the rest of the school community (including parents). Then maybe use power point to communicate and then present to parents and school community. They could send it to their parents via the phone!