SimpleMind App

SimpleMind (Twitter @simplemindapp) is a mind mapping/concept mapping tool designed to synchronize across devices. It is available for iOS, Android, Windows, and Mac, and comes in free and paid versions. The beauty of this software is in the range of capabilities. Teachers and students can create very simple maps about single concepts, or very complex maps with many topics and multiple levels. With the free version, you can create unlimited mind maps, use the horizontal auto layout, access the built-in style sheets, add notes to topics, expand and collapse branches, and use an outline view. The full version includes more useful features such as exporting files in several formats, additional auto layouts (vertical, top-down, list), custom style sheets, cross-link topics, insert images and photos, insert web links and links to other mind maps, search, and many others.

I created the examples in the free version. The map above demonstrates a fourth grade classroom brainstorming session about natural resources in colonial Virginia and how people used those resources. A more complex version of the map (below) can be used with older students. Other classroom uses for mind or concept maps could be as a pre-reading strategy, a review tool, to take notes, differentiate with images, plan and outline projects (Reading Rockets, n.d.; Lucid Software Inc., n.d.), and a new type of KWL chart (Tolisano, 2015).

How do you use mind mapping or concept mapping in your classroom?

References

Lucid Software Inc. (n.d.). Comprehensive guide to concept mapping. Retrieved from https://www.lucidchart.com/pages/concept-map

Reading Rockets. (n.d.) Concept maps. Retrieved from http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/concept_maps

Tolisano, S. R. (2015, June 12). An updated to the upgraded KWL for the 21st century. Retrieved from http://langwitches.org/blog/2015/06/12/an-update-to-the-upgraded-kwl-for-the-21st-century/