MindMeister

[|MindMeister] is software for collaborative mindmapping. It has online and offline availability, real-time collaboration, and easy sharing features.

There are different levels of plans - the free version allows 3 mindmaps. After that you have to pay $59/month. A concern with it for educational purposes is that the free version includes ads, some of which did not seem innocuous. To turn them off, you have to upgrade to the premium plan.

This tool allows you to create a mindmap online and then share it with others for collaboration, print, or export. You can put icons or image files with nodes for visuals, format text, and create notes that will show if mousing over a particular node through the side toolbar (see left).

Mindmapping is an incredibly useful strategy for organizing projects, organizing thinking, and organizing writing. To have it online raises the usefulness to another degree in that it is available anytime/anywhere by any of the collaborators and it can be formatted with ease. There are many applications for this software for both teachers and for students if the premium version is being used, but I would hesitate to use the free version because of the unpredictability of the ads.

For example:

- A group could collaborate on pre-writing for a research project - Each person could be responsible for a subset of a broad topic. They could each generate their own node, along with it the major research questions they would be investigating. As items are finished, it could be colorcoded to show the teacher and other group members what has been completed for a quick visual on what still needs to be done and progress made. A teacher could use this to plan for small group work in which she might need to teach a minilesson, or give ideas for how to direct students to appropriate resources.