WEBSPIRATION – MIND MAPPING TOOL

A couple of weeks ago I was reading my gReader and saw this site (I originally couldn’t remember who posted it and link to the original review – If you read below it was a member of my PLN – Bill Chapman – sorry I didn’t get it right the first time) being reviewed.  I know that a great number of Special Education students do really well using mind maps and my last school used Inspiration Mind Mapping software.

At that time I used Inspiration a lot for taking notes for students in my co-taught U.S. History class and was totally impressed with the software package.  The students seemed to remember the information more easily when it was presented in this graphic form.  When I found out that they had a web-based beta application called oddly enough Webspiration, I couldn’t wait for a chance to try it out.

I was at a presentation by Central Maine Inclusive Schools (CMIS) recently on Attachment Disorders.  I like to take notes and sometimes make them into a blog, but I hate handwriting notes (as do most of my students), it is a waste of time it seems, when you hardly ever refer back to them and they sit in a drawer/folder until you throw them out. 

I am a bit down on note taking as a practice for the most part, it is in my opinion a left-over skill set from when most teaching was accomplished by lecture for regular education or special education students.  If teachers are using lecture as their main vehicle of educational delivery then I feel their students (at whatever level) are being short changed.  I would rather turn on the record function of my laptop and record the teacher’s lecture and go back later to figure out what was being presented than attempting to take notes that I can’t read and don’t understand anyway…how many of Special Education students feel this way too?  Probably most of them.

So I attempted to take the notes using Webspiration (as long as you have an internet connection) – it worked fabulously for me. But I can type pretty quickly, have used mind mapping software before and know that I don’t have to write everything the presenter puts out there.

Mind mapping applications are a great educational tools that presents things visually to students.  I always thought that Inspiration was the most intuitive mind mapping program for me and now that they have a web based version,  plan to start using it in my classroom.  But there will definitely be a learning curve and some resistance just because it is new to most of the students.

I also like the sharing function also, my teaching assistant asked for a copy I sent her the share link and it worked perfectly.

The only question I have about the product is once it comes out of Beta, how much will the the Company charge for using Webspiration?  If it isn’t too much, I might seriously consider a subscription.  But as any teacher will tell you on our budgets free is better. Overall, after a short bit of use – two thumbs up

I have not received any kind of compensation for writing this review, it is simply my views/opinion of something that I am using.

Do the right thing for the right reasons – today and every day