Kristianstill

It is not often that I find two tools in one day that I think I will go on to use as a teacher and also encourage my students to use to develop their own learning and presentation skills.  However Text2MindMap is the second home run of the day.

Text 2 Mind map is a web application that converts texts to a mind maps. Text 2 Mind Map takes a structured list of words or sentences, interprets it, and draws a mind map of them.

I am not sure their description really does it justice. What Text2MindMap actually does is give simple word lists a visual hierarchy or organisation, albeit one that you predetermine. It would be very good for ranking and evaluating factors that impact upon a topic, in the example provided, the factors that influence a training programme (it was late and I didnt really think about ICT applications. The look and feel of the site reminds me visuwords and both sites certainly bring words to life.

Flowcharts has real potential. I am sure that there will have been a lot of hard work bringing the site this far. There are some strong draw features, such as alignment,  gradients and line types as well as a large clip art bank to draw from. Some interesting collaboration and export options.

Its a little slow rendering at the moment and maybe one or two visio-structural improvements to be made but all in all, it was not to taxing to produce my first flowcharts, chart.

A couple of points, if the menus are unseen, look under your browser toolbars (View / toolbars). If you find it hard to find a function, simply holding down CTRL brings up the shortcut menu (a neat idea I thought). While there maybe offline tools out there, like the aforementioned SERIF Draw Plus X2 package, this site does permit the collaboration of all good web apps.

Browsing yesterday I came across a powerpoint tip for presenters, as teachers, I thought it would be very useful in the classroom. Simply, during a presentation, pressing the ‘B’ key turns the screen black, press the ‘B’ key again, and the slideshow presses on.

For those of you that know me, you know I love inspiring words. I have tried very hard not to be distracted and to post quotes as blog posts, but after reading this Michelango’s quote from Garr Reynolds post, I felt it deserved a second airing. Now I have broken the seal, expect more…..

The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.  Michelangelo

Just a couple of points, the first is a really neat find for all students completing Unit 2 and 21 on the OCR ICT Nationals course. ICONlook is a search engine for ICONS. Even is students only use the site to find and combine the icons with text, its a great accelerator. I searched for ‘blog’ and found a loud speaker icon, search ‘home’ and you get some 50 or so home page icons in a range of roof colours, structures and perspectives. However, its also a great teaching resource and very useful for effective powerpoint presentations. Which brings me to point 2.

I have enjoyed reading Presentation Zen for some time now (I know that my ppts have been significantly improved). Well, both PZ and one or two other posts recommended brainrules. If you get time, definitely worth watching / reading.