Mind maps and tree diagrams are great techniques that can be used as prewriting activities in order to gather and organize all the information before the final piece of writing. These techniques share characteristics in that they belong to the business world, but they also adjust to education. Both are graphic techniques with a central keyword from which secondary ideas are connected.
The mind mapping technique was created by the British psychologist, Tony Buzan. You can read Tony Buzan's profile in this link, http://www.mind-mapping.co.uk/tony-buzan-biog.htm. A mind map is a tool that helps us to organize thoughts in a non-linear way. The advantages of using mind maps as prewriting activities are that you can facilitate the use of the right hemisphere of the brain, stimulate creativity, provide a global view, and foster the association of ideas.
Tree diagrams are used to differentiate between two things, so you can use either vocabulary or linking words to contrast two things, people, or ideas. There are two ways to draw a tree diagram, that is to say that the diagram may be horizontal or vertical, and in both cases differences are displayed.
Using tree diagrams could be considered the opposite of using Venn diagrams because when we develop a Venn diagram, we want to show similarities despite the differences among the items to be compared.
In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:
- Pictures in mind maps—using Buzan's iMindMap V4
- Adding data to pictures—creating a mind map using MindMeister
- Providing a situation to a story—drawing a mind map using the website, Draw Anywhere
- Creating mind maps using resources from Web 2.0
- Creating a tree diagram using Microsoft Word
- Pictures in a tree diagram—creating a tree diagram using the website, creately.com
- Completing a tree diagram comparing two persons using the website, my.lovelycharts.com
- Comparing the Flintstones and the Simpsons—using cacoo.com to create a tree diagram
In this chapter, we are going to design four mind maps and four tree diagrams. In each recipe, we are going to use different software in order to create those graphs. After that, we are going to upload them into our Moodle course. We are going to use either commercial software or free and open source software.
In this virtual classroom, we are going to enrich the use of vocabulary, because in the creation of these techniques we have to use keywords, which have to be used in a piece of writing.
First of all, we are going to work with mind maps and then with tree diagrams. Mind maps are going to be designed according to the facilities that the different software provides us to exploit them.
Tree diagrams can be used to compare two items; therefore, in this case you are free to use either tree diagrams or Venn diagrams, which are also used to compare things. Thus, your students will choose which tool to use when they have to use a comparison text. There are two ways to design tree diagrams—either horizontal or vertical.