Goal
Mindmaps bring structure and order thoughts. The help learners to store knowledge and to understand the connections between certain aspects.
Steps
Ask learners to write a central topic or a leading question on a paper (here: Creativity).
Encourage them to write the subordinate aspects or associations close to the central word. Try to follow a structural logic and connect the aspects with lines or different kind of arrows, like in the illustration.
Mapping: Resources
Nils-Eyk Zimmermann
Editor of Competendo. Coordinator of the project DIGIT-AL Digital Transformation in Adult Learning for Active Citizenship. Network Secretary of the DARE network. Topics: active citizenship, civil society, digital transformation, non-formal and lifelong learning, capacity building. Blogs here: Blog: Civil Resilience. Email: office@dare-network.eu
Experience
Mindmaps might be used on posters in a group process or used as an electronical tool.
However, as mindmaps are a standard today, one could look for alternatives such as Problem Trees, Ishikara Diagrams,...
Variation
Applications for electronic mindmapping are especially effective, as everything can be rearranged or enlarged. The open source electronic tool FreePlane helps you to change, rearrange, add and connect ideas, words or phrases. Even complex knowledge can be arranged in such electronic maps.
