Introducing the MindManager Student and Educator program
Over 65% of people are considered visual learners, which means they learn best by interacting with information presented as visual images, like graphs, photos, and diagrams. Unfortunately, traditional teaching methods often lack certain elements essential for people to succeed. In order to accommodate the majority of learners, new teaching and learning methods must be implemented, as well as the technology that enables them.
Mind mapping is a teaching and learning technique that enables users to structure and organize information into shareable visual diagrams. Being able to communicate information visually facilitates both students and educators to communicate concepts and ideas more effectively, and makes organizing, planning, and teaching classes more efficient.
Accordingly, MindManager is offering students mind mapping software at 65% off the standard retail price; this includes the full suite of features, collaboration tools, and more.
Using interactive mind mapping software can help further streamline information and improve knowledge management and communication among students and educators. For instance, using MindManager, a tool designed to provide mind mapping capabilities to students and teachers alike, enables educators to visualize information, plan their classes and syllabi, and enrich the learning experience for their students.
Using mind maps lets teachers organize and provide context for lectures, notes, research, and other information to improve the educational experience. Recently, MindManager has added more than 30 new templates (available on the web app) to help with organizing course material, exam prep, brainstorming and ideation, and so much more.
To create a mind map, users take a main idea, focus, or subject to use as the center of their map. Next, they surround this main idea with other themes using offshoots called ‘branches.’ From there, relevant topics or concepts fork off from ‘branches,’ represented as ‘twigs.’ Once completed, the main idea, branches, and twigs form a connected nodal structure.
The theory behind mind mapping is simple: When you get information out of your brain and present it visually, you can literally ‘map out’ your ideas. It’s a creative and logistical process of note-making and note-taking. Mind mapping can help you stay organized and unlock the dynamic potential of your thought processes.
How can mind mapping benefit students?
Just as mind mapping benefits educators, mapping can also greatly impact students’ education. Studies have shown that students who use mind mapping in and out of the classroom have improved critical thinking skills. Furthermore, mind mapping can improve student performance, engagement, and overall understanding.
Other ways that mind mapping can help students throughout their education include:
Improving information retention. Many traditional teaching methods don’t consider that most people are visual learners. Students can benefit from mind mapping because it presents information both visually and auditorily to help them better grasp and retain information.
Helping them navigate complex topics more easily. Mind mapping software helps students understand the big picture of a lesson. By mapping out the learning process, students are forced to make associations between information that may otherwise seem disconnected.
Bringing fun and creativity into their curriculums. Creativity is a vital part of creating mind maps. Mind mapping as a creative outlet can be an exciting and fun activity that helps to engage students in their curriculums.
Organizing academic research. When more in-depth research needs to be done, mind mapping can help students stay organized. Main ideas can remain the focal point of the map, while other smaller related topics don’t get lost among vast amounts of information.
Decreasing information overload and stress levels. It’s easy for students to become stressed when they experience information overload. Mind mapping eliminates the anxiety of racking their brains to remember earlier concepts or ideas. MindManager’s mapping software enables students to tie information together in a cohesive and comprehensive way.
How can mind mapping benefit educators?
Mind mapping helps teachers stay organized before and during class, as well as outside the classroom. Using mind mapping, teachers can help themselves and their students visualize information and draw constructive connections between points on the map. MindManager’s maps enable teachers to organize large amounts of data and information, bring structure and clarity to concepts, and turn ideas into action.
Other ways teachers can use mind mapping to their benefit include:
Incorporating mind maps into lessons. Mind maps are highly effective teaching tools. They help students throughout the brainstorming, discussion, and presenting processes. Teachers can use them as a replacement for PowerPoints or to create printouts as study aids.
Using mind maps to keep track of student performance. Mind maps are useful for keeping track of student progress. Student data can be easily organized so that it can be utilized during school meetings, grading, and report cards.
Keeping curriculum information organized. Lesson plans, daily tasks, student information, and to-dos can all be managed using mind maps. Teachers can use maps as a centralized reference for all information pertaining to their classroom.
Planning lessons with mind maps. Teachers can create a mind map starting with the main topic of a lesson and continue to fill out relevant information as time goes on. Mind maps can help students visualize what’s to come in their lesson plans.
Implementing mind maps to help students perform better. Mind mapping has been proven to help students retain and understand information better than other teaching methods. This understanding comes from students’ ability to draw connections between topics, enabling them to formulate a more complete understanding of the subject.
How is mind mapping used in educational institutions?
Mind mapping is a powerful learning and study tool that has various purposes in educational institutions. Both students and educators can use mind mapping to better brainstorm, visualize, communicate, present, collaborate, stay organized, and so much more.
Grasping course materials
Mind mapping is especially useful for helping people better understand course material. For example, a study done on early childhood development educators showed that mind mapping helped them master material concepts and coursework. In addition, the study found mind mapping methods to be “appropriate, fast, easy and practical” when used to understand different development assessment concepts.
Staying organized
It’s easy to stay focused and organized when you use mind mapping techniques. Maps help users to avoid information overload by providing a platform to outline all necessary information.
Mind mapping software lets users directly add links, files, images, and other information into the maps themselves. That way, users can access all the tools and resources they need to stay on course as individuals or in a group setting.
Retaining information
Mind mapping software is often used as an effective study aid for students of all ages. Another study done on second- and third-year medical students proved that mind mapping was a beneficial study technique. Mind mapping was shown to help improve factual recall from written class material when students were well-trained in their use.
Collaboration
Collaborating is also made easy via mind mapping. MindManager, for example, is compatible with platforms such as Microsoft Teams. Here, Teams members can easily implement mind maps into everyday chats via the embedded editor. Group members can facilitate brainstorming, planning, whiteboarding, and so much more without ever leaving the Teams app.
In addition, group members can automatically co-edit the same map when connected in a Teams chat. This feature helps users move projects forward collaboratively to support alignment across an organization.
Presenting ideas and communicating information
Presenting information has never been easier with mind mapping. Often, people learn better when information is presented visually. Mind maps make it simple to start at the core of a topic or idea and then work outward in other related directions.
Easy presentation of information can enable greater knowledge management within the classroom or institution. With mind mapping, valuable information and knowledge is accessible, easy to understand, and centrally located. This way of learning and communication significantly helps streamline information across classes, departments, and teams.
Type of mind maps and how they’re useful to educators
The various kinds of maps that MindManager has to offer can help you to accomplish different goals. MindManager provides users with dozens of unique styles of maps to enable them to be better students or educators.
Task and project management maps: Gantt charts, Kanban boards, Timeline charts, and Pert charts help organize, visualize, and schedule daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly workload tasks.
Planning maps: Strategy, Concept, Thought, and Life maps provide a visual way to keep track of existing knowledge on subjects. They also enable you to see your process and progress as you gain a broader perspective of your goals and how they are all connected.
Problem-solving and decision-making maps: Venn diagrams, Matricx diagrams, Mental maps, Ishikawa diagrams, Fishbone diagrams, and Decision trees show the potential causes of a specific event or process. They can also illustrate relationships between ideas and data to aid in planning and decision-making.
Brainstorming maps: Mind maps, Bubble maps, and Spider diagrams help to organize ideas, data, links, resources, and logic. These maps are often used before starting a project to get a better understanding of a particular topic.
Organizing data maps: Onion diagrams, Tree diagrams, Knowledge maps, and organizational charts help to organize how work flows through an institution, visualize outcomes and probabilities of situations, and show where knowledge can be found within a school or organization.
Process maps: Flowcharts, Workflow diagrams, Swim Lane diagrams, Process maps, Activity diagrams, and Funnel charts demonstrate how data and information flow within an organization. These maps can help visually represent a concept, process, project, or assignment.
Curious how mind mapping with MindManager can benefit you and your institution?
If you want to give mind mapping a try, it’s the perfect time to get started. MindManager’s mapping software can help students and educators brainstorm, communicate, visualize, plan, retain information, and so much more.
Each one of MindManager’s mapping templates can help you get closer to achieving your educational goals while staying focused and organized in your day-to-day processes and assignments. Now, students and educators can enjoy all the awesome benefits of MindManager Professional (including the full suite of features, collaboration tools, and more) for a special student price!