In reflecting on tech that changes the landscape of learning, I came across a post from one of our fellow students commiserating that we do not yet have the ability to create a ‘Sherlock’ style Mind Palace, where one can go in a virtual space and organize and categorize ones ideas. The credit goes to Miguel post on this week’s discussion forum. This inspired me to think of all the ways that we already have the ability to ‘map our minds’.
This video outlines the general idea of a Mind Palace:
Visualizing your thoughts by “Mind mapping” is kind of like a first step towards virtual mind palaces. We all can agree that visual learning has an essential role in learning. And what about in creating your own knowledge pathways? Sometimes our thoughts and ideas remain too abstract when they are stuck inside our head. You can visualize your ideas, either traditionally, by using a pen and paper, or with the many new applications that allow the user to easily add ideas and draw connections from their mobile device.
In choosing a software to demonstrate, I decided ‘simple’ is best. “Simple mind” is a free software (with optional upgrades) that allows you to easily organize your ideas using an iPad or other mobile device. This application, is one of many of the like that allow you to form your ideas in ‘bubbles’ or ‘blocks’ and manipulate them using your fingertips to zoom, pan, or drag and drop. In addition, it has tools to categorize ideas with colours etc. This basic but powerful customization allows the user to easily throw their ideas into a virtual space.
If you are interested in looking into mind mapping further, you can find some case studies here and here (simplemind.eu).
Outstanding post! 5/5 stars. I 100% approve and support all of this and am very passionate about this topic!