I enjoyed this thorough and considerate article about concept mapping and education.
Coming from this class, I read the subtitle heading, “Tools for Negotiating Meaning,” and assumed that the teacher was using the tool of concept mapping to provide meaning to his/her students. I was interested as I continued to read to see how much deeper this subtitle truly went.
One of the most important things that you can do for yourself and your audience when you are considering a solution that involves visual mapping is to ask yourself the right questions about how your solution will be deployed.
One of the most important of these questions that you can ask yourself is:
What visual mapping methodology or mix of methodologies will best express the output of my thinking process in this situation?
There has been an incredible amount of work done in the area of visual thinking. Much of this is academic, or specialized to work in certain fields, but there are many choices that are appropriate for regular general use. Mind mapping is one of the most useful and flexible, partly because of its special limitations. It is easy to make a mind map that is overlarge, but it isn’t too easy to create one that is overcomplicated. Where mind maps are not appropriate, there is usually another excellent choice. I will ignore linear methods such as flow charts and very specialized methods such as Unified Modeling Language and Conceptual Graphs for now and concentrate on very general, dynamic means of knowledge representation.
Here are some basic guidelines when deciding how to express different kinds of visual maps. For each technique, I will list pros and cons, and a sampling of useful software tools.
2D Mind Map, or Idea Map
Nodes radiate out from a single central node. Each node may have an unlimited number of child nodes. Each node except the central node also has one parent and may have an unlimited number of siblings. It is sort of like a tree in the shape of a circle.
Strengths: Lending hierarchical structure to unstructured data or ideas, as in categorizing lists or brainstorming or certain kinds of problem-solving. Mind maps can be freely annotated with text and pictures.
Weaknesses: Mind mapping doesn’t work well when you need flexible relationships among nodes that are cousin or siblings or one another, or a child node having two parent nodes, or many nodes linking to one another in a single diagram that aren’t hierarchically related. It works best in a tree-like structure. Non parent / child relationships can only be indicated by drawing lines between nodes, which can be cumbersome due to the overall circular, nested shape of the diagram.
Software tools: MindManager, FreeMind, NovaMind, Cayra, MindMeister, bubbl.us, Tinderbox
3D Mind Map
Each node has an unlimited number of parents, children, and siblings and any node can be related to any other node in any way that is not paradoxical (a child can’t be its parent node’s parent, etc.). You could describe it as a sphere with a surface that may change almost entirely as it rotates. There is no real central node as in a 2D mind map. Any node can be centralized, contextualizing the presentation of the map, making the relationships radiating from the central node most prominent until another node is centralized. The relationships themselves can be annotated in some tools, similar to concept or topic maps.
Strengths: Almost arbitrarily complex relationships among potentially huge sets of nodes. Surprising insight can be gained into relations inherent to the data set being visualized by just moving around in the map and playing with linking things together.
Weaknesses: 3D mind maps can be challenging to present in printed form and can become overly complicated because so much data can be accommodated by them, all of which is somehow related.
Software tools: PersonalBrain, Cayra, Tinderbox
A Cayra hybrid:
Topic Map, Concept Map, Semantic Network
These are really three different types of diagrams, but they are very similar. They consist of set of typed or untyped nodes connected by typed or untyped lines that are either directional arrows or just lines. They can be more or less formal. There is an ISO standard for topic maps. They tend to be less friendly and a bit more complicated than mind maps, but sometimes convey more information. One node is related to any number of other nodes, and the relationships are usually described (”has a”, “is a”, “loves”, “begins with”). Concept maps are probably the most generally useful of this lot primarily because they tend to be the least formal.
Strengths: Fluid or no hierarchy. Descriptions of arbitrarily complex relationships can be represented. Attempts at combining seemingly unrelated ideas and topics may produce surprisingly useful results. These diagrams are often excellent for diagramming things that lead to complex, difficult-to-read prose.
Weaknesses: If you are not describing something that is pretty formal and limited, these diagrams can be sort of vague. They can also be hard to read if they are on the large side.
Software tools: Tinderbox, CmapTools, Cayra
Venn Diagram
A Venn Diagram is a picture of two or more interlinked circles representing contrasting ideas. Topics are placed in one circle if they apply only to one of the ideas. If a topic applies to two ideas that are next to each other, it is placed in the area where the circles overlap. This diagram has its origin in set theory.
Strengths: Venn diagrams a very good at illustrating comparisons.
Weaknesses: They are good for almost nothing else.
Software tools: Inspiration, SmartDraw, ConceptDraw
In part two of the Visual Thinking Skills: Architecture series we’ll discuss sharing the visual maps we create.
Via Ed Vielmetti, here’s an interesting story about the hidden benefits of disorder.
Town ditches traffic lights to cut accidents | U.S. | Reuters
“BERLIN (Reuters) - A town council in Germany has decided the best way of improving road safety is to remove all traffic lights and stop signs downtown.”
Many people have a difficult time sitting down at a computer or with a piece of paper and creating a visual representation of ideas that are running around in their minds, or of information that is coming into their sphere of influence. There is very much information on the web right now about how to get started with mind mapping or some other visual mapping technique, but not very much beyond the basics. It is this gap between green-field theory and everyday practice that makes visual thinking impractical for many people. I have been using visual mapping tools and techniques for many years, and thought that I would share some advice about hurdles that I’ve overcome or am struggling to clear.
The two major categories of skills that are useful in developing a set of tools and a visual language to express yourself and your ideas in are analysis and composition. I’ll begin with the analysis skills, because this tends to be the area that people need the most help with.
Some of the major analysis skills I’ll be discussing are:
I’m hoping that these will be helpful to many readers, so please stay tuned as I continue composing them.
There’s a new beta of PersonalBrain available. It seems to provide some significant improvements in speed and reliability and a bit more configurable of a user interface.
4.1.0.9 - Speed and Reliability - TheBrain Technologies Message Board
This release includes the biggest speed optimization we have done yet and significant reliability improvements. Plus, there are several fixes to the UI of the tools layout. Highly recommended and worth upgrading if you are using the beta.
Watch idea mapping creator and trainer Jamie Nast explain about the “bloom” and the “flow” and more.
Idea Mapping: Jamie Creates a “To Do” Map - Watch the Live TV Clip
The Brothers Grimm wrote a fairy tale about a poor cobbler and some helpful elves. Part of the story goes like this …
Then he cut his leather out, all ready to make up the next day,
meaning to rise early in the morning to his work. His conscience was
clear and his heart light amidst all his troubles; so he went
peaceably to bed, left all his cares to Heaven, and soon fell asleep.
In the morning after he had said his prayers, he sat himself down to
his work; when, to his great wonder, there stood the shoes all ready
made, upon the table. The good man knew not what to say or think at
such an odd thing happening. He looked at the workmanship; there was
not one false stitch in the whole job; all was so neat and true, that
it was quite a masterpiece.
I believe that there is a valuable lesson to be learned here. This is true of many such stories.
I have had experiences similar to the experience of the cobbler in the story many times. Our subconscious mind is capable of continuing to work on problems while we sleep, sometimes with astounding results.
Years ago, when I was learning how to program in assembly language for the Intel microprocessors I came to a point that I could not get past. I could not understand one problem, a part of how a particular program was operating. I could get it to work, but I couldn’t understand why it worked. I read and studied all of the information that I could find about the issues surrounding my problem, but I just couldn’t make it work and so needlessly beat my head against the wall for hours without getting anywhere.
When I went to sleep that night, I had a strange and vivid dream. I dreamed that I was inside the computer’s memory while the program was running, moving values in the program around by pushing them with my hands, watching the part of the program that I couldn’t understand working from the inside. When I awoke, I went to the computer and understood the program perfectly. While I was asleep, my unconscious mind figured out what my conscious mind was too nervous and frantic to understand.
Since that time I have come to appreciate this effect, especially in situations that are complicated or difficult. Here are some tips to get the elves working for you.
Thanks to the Mind Mapping Software blog, I’ve discovered the latest in a flood of visual mapping tools, Cayra. Read the rundown of features over there and then check out this screen cast I made that shows how Cayra moves. It’s pretty impressive. It looks like Cayra will do a better job than most mind mapping tools of adapting to the context of a particular bunch of information by shifting irrelevant stuff out of the way with smooth animations. It seems to achieve a compelling compromise between the contextualizing and 3d-ness of PersonalBrain and the gestalt of more conventional mind mapping software. It will be interesting to watch this tool grow. Oh, and it’s apparently free, at for now.
The Mind Mapping Software Weblog: Cayra, a new desktop mapping program, is announced
Cayra, which is currently at release 0.8.2. It’s built around the Microsoft .NET framework, and claims to combine mind mapping, concept mapping and topic mapping. The screenshot (above right) looks quite colorful and elegant.
A great article at Litemind discussing how visual thinking may be used as an aid to memory.
Improve Your Memory by Speaking Your Mind’s Language
“The pegging memorization technique is just a small demonstration of how powerful visual thinking is. In fact, visual thinking is behind many mind-enhancing techniques such as mind mapping and is the core component of most other more advanced memorization techniques.”
Jamie Nast has been posting some really nice examples of a pilot’s emergency procedure training idea maps. Click on each map for the complete article & links to larger images.
