https://anchor.fm/hitechpod/embed/episodes/4--Mind-Mapping--Coggle-ern594

This Week's App: Coggle

What is Coggle?

Coggle is a free mind-mapping and flow chart web tool. It allows people to visually organize information or ideas. These types of hierarchical maps are often used to show connections between ideas or thoughts and how they connect to larger topics. You can create a topic and branch ideas off of that topic in several directions.

Coggle gives you the ability to quickly create these mind map graphics by color-coding branches of the mind map automatically and giving easy quick buttons to start new ideas or branches.

What can it be used for?

It comes as a no-brainer that this tool is used for mind-mapping because it is a tool designed specifically for that, but how can you use mind-mapping in your classroom or activities? Mind Maps are meant to leverage the way our brain thinks, it forces students to process and work through connections between resources, thoughts, ideas, etc. Coggle allows your students to visually process ideas & connections in new ways

Coggle allows your students to visually layout ideas & connections in new ways.

Mind Maps are meant to leverage the way our brain thinks, it forces students to process and work through connections between resources, thoughts, ideas, etc. Coggle allows your students to visually layout ideas & connections in new ways. For instance, you can see how I laid out in a very basic form a mind map that explains the process. I was able to quickly layout different elements of why they are useful, what they are, and some of the basic uses.

So what can you use it for? Well, coggle can be used for several different types of uses, but we would recommend looking for activities where students need to process ideas. You could have your students create a mind map to visualize important terms from reading to find the connections, plan out projects or papers, brainstorm ideas, or even use it as a note-taking idea. Mind-maps can be used for most initial idea or concept processing assessments. The point is to get your students to start process concepts.

How do you get started?

First, we recommend trying the tool yourself, you can go to coggle.it and click sign up now to get an account created. From there Coggle gives some great tutorials within the app to help you get started. We recommend checking out their Creating Mindmaps help page if you have issues. This is a great support page with guides that can walk you through the whole mind map creation process.

Then when you are ready to start trying to use this we have a things that will help you identify where you can use this practice.

1. Identify where having your students stop to process concepts or information might be helpful.
2. Develop a prompt that can help them get started creating. While you can just get them started we find it helpful to give them some direction.
3. Prepare to give feedback to your students. Always be ready to give feedback to their mind maps. Specifically hone in on how they connect ideas.