BP4_MindMeister when you have thoughts to share

MindMeister is mind-mapping software that helps you organize and share ideas, concepts and information, by putting them in context. We have a few ideas on how this app can help our family track what we learn, organize our research and collaborate better with each other.

But first we better describe the different options you might try.

Iden's daily travel journal template is under construction.

Create Your Own

Create a thought pattern style map using a key word, phrase or statement. This one I set up as a template for my son, Iden, to use as his daily journal base for our upcoming cruise. You’ll see in a minute why I would choose this program for my 6 year old, who is just learning to read and write.

Make visual connections

I also created a template for my son Aren, who is currently blogging for our site AwayIsHome.come as well as his own Aren World of Science. Gotta keep him busy!

In research, there are often overlaps. For example on his Barcelona research we connect Barcelona’s famous architect, Guidi to his famous buildings in Places to See and will also end up adding a connection to the map of the area where the building stands.

Aren is working on his Barcelona, Spain research with Mom and Dad.

Aren will use MindMeister Maps to collect and organize his research for both sites. And I am hoping we will be able to merge the sites later and have a master of his resources and create a movie about his summer online. 

Insert pictures, links and documents, oh, my!

You can also see in Aren’s Barcelona research we have active links to some map sites, an image of the building by Guidi. And in Guidi’s node we have attached a document that is a biography about the architect. You can view the document without leaving MindMeister too.

Work it out together

I’d like to bring it back to Iden, my 6 year old.  He’s a visual learner, but he is also very kinesthetic. Wants to touch and move stuff.  Hard to do with ideas. But in MindMeister he can make connections and move items by drag and drop from one node to another. Just a mouse click, drag and drop. And it is very visual. See how we added icons to visually identify each parent node.

People have shared their mind maps
on a wide variety of subjects.

Better yet, we can share the file with each other online and work together, even if I am away on business or he is visiting his grandparents. We can even share with Grandma and Grandpa, just giving them viewing privileges for now.

We plan to use the collaborative feature as part of our planning research with our Internet audience at awayishome.com.

Borrow from another

There is also an area where you can give access to your mind maps to everyone at MindMeister, or borrow someone else’s work and build on it yourself.

What do you think?

Maybe you have some ideas on how to use the collaborative features on MindMeister, or other applications. We’d love to know!  Leave a comment to get the conversation rolling. We might even give it a try too.