[Gllug] Mindmapping now available on OSS

[Wulf Forrester-Barker]

Bernard <bap at shrdlu.com> wrote:

> I use mindmapping when designing training sessions.
> I put together a mind-map then try to draw a continuous
> line through the topics. That makes the sessions more
> coherent and suggests when I need to recap topics. I
> don't know whether the software version supports that
> approach.

I use a similar approach on paper. I start off with the word or title
that I'm building around in the middle and start off in a similar
fashion to brainstorming to generate lots of ideas (although I may allow
myself the indulgence of chaining a few concepts together even at this
early stage).

Once I feel happy that I've caught most of the thoughts I've been
mulling over, I begin grouping them together (either involving lots of
rubbing out or rewriting the whole thing on a fresh sheet). Similar
ideas become linked, coherent streams of through develop and I'll often
highlight types of ideas (such as questions to ask or anecdotes to
relate). Finally, I'll start thinking about sequence both with a line
threaded between the main points and within the individual subshoots,
particularly looking for how the final subshoot of one point can segue
into the opening subshoot of the next one.

On a software system I'm not sure that replicating the lines is
absolutely necessary. Certainly with the software I used before, the
appropriate paradigm seemed to be dragging and dropping to create groups
and then reordering them to create an appropriate sequence. 

The main limitation was that a piece of paper (especially the luxury of
an A3 pad or larger) is the equivalent of working on a very high
resolution screen. You can fold and expand sections but sometimes it is
useful to see everything at once.

Of course, it's normally easier to read a computer printout when it
comes to giving the presentation, so the are pros and cons with both
approaches!

Wulf

-- 
Wulf Forrester-Barker, webmaster
http://www.lewisham.nhs.uk/


wulf.f-b at uhl.nhs.uk

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