Introduction: Mind Maps: How to Enhance the Learning Experience
A mind map is a way to visually map out text, and the role and relationships between concepts in the text, to increase understanding. Any mind map you create, should tell you a story when you look at it. With many mind mapping software now available, more people are turning to mind maps to enhance their learning experience.
There are several ways that you can use mind maps.
- After you have read a book, you can create a mind map with the core concepts of the book to enhance memory
- After taking a course, or attending a class, create a mind map of what you have learned, which will serve as a refresher
- If you are writing an article, create a mind map to use as an outline
- Mind maps are also great brainstorming tools
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Uses for Mind Maps – Mind Maps: Quicker Notes, Better Memory, and Improved Learning 3.0
How to Create a Mind Map
- After reading any material, or taking a class, spend some time thinking about what you just learned
- Using a mind mapping software such as Freemind, Xmind, or MindMeister, create a mind map of what you have learned
- For example, if you just finished reading a book that will enable you to perform your job better, to start the mind map:
- Write the name of the book
- To branch out from the title of the book, write the major themes and concepts using short sentences
- Take each theme and flesh it out, by branching out from them
- If there are many important concepts in the book, create a separate mind map for that concept so the mind map doesn’t appear too crowded
- Nothing exists in a vacuum, so add your thoughts and relate the concepts to each other
Also, it’s often daunting to start with a blank page if you are writing an article, or want to tackle writing a book or whatever. To get started, before actually using the mind map, go to Google Search Engine and type in your keyword and start searching. When the results appear for your keyword search, you will notice that Google has related search terms at the bottom of the first page of the search results. This will give you ideas of what to include in an article.
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Further Reading
