Susanne Gunning

Tony Buzan introduced mind maps and they are extremely useful for organising, linking and developing ideas. They started as a diagram that you could easily draw and add to on paper with colourful additions by using texta colours. Now they have been raised to a more sophisticated web based form, where you can add media, link to other websites and expand the map itself by linking it to sub maps.When I was teaching, I encouraged language learners to create a mind map to introduce themselves, talk about their language learning goals, and expand on their long term and short term life goals. I have also found them useful as a guide to presenting book reviews. They assist to organise thoughts and allow for more flexibility at the moment of presentation, because according to what will work at the time you can branch out into whichever direction you choose.While I find it preferable to a linear form of presentation used by PowerPoint presenters, not everyone is of the same opinion. Colleagues have told me that they find it difficult to deal with the organic nature of mind maps. Like many learning strategies, decision to use it or not can be influenced by learning style preference. Therefore teachers can explicitly introduce it as something that may or may not be of assistance as a learning strategy.To learn more about mind maps it is worthwhile looking at Chuck Frey’s blog: The Mind Mapping Software Blog. He gives the latest news on what’s occurring in the field of mind mapping and directs you to some amazing mind maps.