Charting a Course Using Mind Maps

I saw an intriguing presentation yesterday that led me to reevaluate how I use mind maps. I had played around with the MindMeister app on my android phone before—using it to organize my thoughts for a paper, but never really considered using this organizational tool as a way to present a concept to an audience.

Much like using argument mapping techniques which help visually represent and analyze vital parts of an argument to enhance critical thinking in e-Learning, a Mind Map helps visually organize thoughts around a concept by showing the connections among various supporting elements and ideas.

In much the same way, storyboarding helps organize the creative process through visualizations as well. My wife, who is a screenwriter, uses storyboarding techniques to connect plot points and character introductions in her work. It really seems to help her stay on track and lay out the story before putting fingers to keyboard. She uses a corkboard, push pins, and index cards—it works well for her.

In the Distance Learning course development business, Instructional Systems Designers (ISDs) use similar storyboarding techniques to organize and display conceptual, textual, and multimedia aspects of a course in the early development stages. The storyboard is not only used to pitch the course concept to program managers and prospective clients, it becomes the roadmap for the course production team—helping to keep the project on track toward their ultimate goal. While software solutions exist, many developers seem to favor using Powerpoint or Word to storyboard their course concept in the design phases. Still others choose the old-fashioned white board or corkboard method. While these older techniques get the job done when the team is co-located, they are useless when working in a virtual team. Unless you enjoy sending pictures of whiteboards and corkboards to distant colleagues.

Click here for an example of Storyboarding in ISD at Lynda.com

So I had a thought…

Since these techniques are so similar, why can’t simple Mind Mapping apps and websites be used for e-Learning course development storyboarding? So I did a quick search…and lo and behold... As usual I was not having an original thought. Apparently, Storyboarding with Mind Maps is quite popular among e-Learning course designers.

I think I’ll give it a try next time. I’ll probably use either MindMeister or The Brain, since they are free and are pretty easy to navigate. If you have used this technique or decide to give it a try, please share your thoughts here in the comments.