Information and digital literacy in education via the digital path

Earlier this year I published some reviews and videos about a few new mind mapping tools. As the new school year begins I think it's time that I add those new tools my list of mind mapping creation tools for students and teachers. Here's my updated list of mind mapping and flowchart creation tools.

Earlier this week I published a video about a neat new service called Transo that lets you turn your notes into a mind map with just one click. Creating that video and writing the corresponding blog post got me to revisit a list of mind mapping tools that I published a couple of months ago. Here's my updated list of mind mapping and flowchart creation tools.

Mind mapping requires students to explore information and decide what's important and how it connects with what they already know. This is how they develop their critical thinking.

Easy-to-create and share mind maps, concept maps, task maps and outlines. Mind mapping software for Web, Desktop, iOS and Android. Mind map with us for free!

Earlier this week Tony Vincent Tweeted an excellent graphic that he made to show the process of creating a flowchart in Google Drawings. Tony's graphics are always top notch and this one was not an exception to that rule.

Developing an organized system of note taking is a critical part of college success. Taking great notes doesn't just help us retain more material, it also helps develop higher order thinking skills.

Creating a mind map is an excellent way to generate and write down ideas connected to a central topic. I frequently use mind maps to generate ideas for blog posts and for workshop topics. Students can use them to generate ideas for creative writing, to plan presentations, and to record all of the factors contributing to a central event. Flowcharts help students see how a process works from start to finish. Here are ten free tools that students and teachers can use to create mind mind maps and flowcharts.

Visme is a graphic design tool that I've been using off and on for the last five years. Back when I started using Visme it was known as EWC Presenter and it was a good tool for designing slides and infographics. Recently, Visme added new flowchart design templates and tools.

For a few years there was a popular mind map tool called Text2MindMap that enabled you to create mind maps from typed outlines. It was popular because you could see a written outline on one side of your screen and the connected mind map on the other side of the screen. Unfortunately, Text2MindMap went offline a couple of years ago and never returned. However, this morning I discovered that an independent developer named Tobias Løfgren has revived it on his own site.

A lot of mind mapping tools lock you into using straight lines between elements, but Connected Mind is not one of them. Connected Mind allows you to create mind maps in any configuration that you like. It is a Chrome Web Store app which means that you save your work online using your Google Account credentials.