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Slide 1: Professionalism & Personal Skills Facilitation Tools: Mind Maps and the Use of Visual Information S4
Slide 2: What is a Mind Map? • A mind map is a personal memory aid – you create it • Mind maps can be used to – help solve problems – enhance study techniques • organise notes • plan essays • revise • Mind maps were developed by Tony Buzan – see ‘The Mind Map Book’ by Tony Buzan (1993)
Slide 3: Example of a Mind Map 1 James Cook University Study Skills on line. Mind Mapping http://www.tld.jcu.edu.au/netshare/learn/mindmap/index.html
Slide 4: Mind Maps • Learning to create mind maps takes time and practice • Mind maps use and stimulate the visual abilities of the mind • The benefits are that they enhance the memory’s storing and recalling capabilities through the use of images for emphasis and association • If represented visually a subject can be understood and remembered much more efficiently.
Slide 5: Mind Maps • Activity 4.1 • Activity 4.2 • Activity 4.3
Slide 6: Mind Maps • Activities 4.1, 4.2 and 4.3 illustrate the power and potential of images in – problem solving – organising information – learning and – memorising systems and information.
Slide 7: Images • Human brain has a huge capacity for remembering images • In an experiment where individuals were shown and asked to remember 2460 images (one per second with short breaks every few hundred images) – 94% accuracy when asked to recall via choice between pairs of previously seen image and one not previously seen.
Slide 8: Images • 24 % of people say they have no visualisation capacity – incapable of creating images – no ability to paint or draw • they probably mistake initial failure for fundamental incapacity or • images and colours are somehow perceived as primitive, childish, immature or irrelevant
Slide 9: Example of a Mind Map 2 From ‘The Mind Map Book’ Tony Buzan (1993)
Slide 10: Summary of Mind Map Laws 1 • Techniques – Use Emphasis • always use a central image - worth a thousand words • use images throughout your Mind Map • use three or more colours • use dimension in images and around words
Slide 11: Summary of Mind Map Laws 2 • Words should be printed – more photogenic – more immediate – easier to read • Words should be on a line • Each line connected to other lines – this gives basic structure • Words should be in ‘units’ – one word per line – gives more free hooks
Slide 12: Mind Maps Should be Fun! • Mind maps are about radiant thinking • The mind should be left as ‘free’ as possible – too much thinking about where things should go or whether they should be included will simply slow down the process • They should – enhance the memory! – delight the eye! – stimulate the right cortical processes!
Slide 13: The disadvantages of standard notes • They obscure key words – important ideas are conveyed by key words that bring back sprays of relevant associations whenever they are read or heard. In standard notes these key words often appear on different pages , obscured by the mass of less important words.
Slide 14: The disadvantages of standard notes • They make it difficult to remember or analyse – monotonous, single colour notes are visually boring. As such they are rejected and forgotten. Take the form of endless similar looking lists. The sheer monotony of making such lists puts the brain in a semihypnotic trance, making it impossible to remember their content. Just like this slide
Slide 15: The disadvantages of standard notes • They waste time – by encouraging unnecessary noting – by requiring the reading of unnecessary notes – by requiring re-reading of unnecessary notes – by requiring the searching for key words
Slide 16: The disadvantages of standard notes • They fail to stimulate the brain creatively – the linear presentation of standard notes prevents the brain from making associations, thus counteracting creativity and memory. Also when faced with list style notes, the brain constantly has the sense that it has come to the end or finished - slowing and stifling our thought processes.
Slide 17: Mind Maps in Note Taking and Revision • One immediate use of mind maps is in taking and organising notes from lectures or seminars • They provide an excellent medium for enhancing learning and revision for tests and examinations
Slide 18: Mind Maps • Activity 4.4