Inspiration!

I'm loving it! This week I dived into learning how to use and utilize the software program Inspiration. Inspiration is a way to make visual concept maps electronically. I've also heard them called thinking maps, mind maps, or graphic organizers, and you may hear me refer to them using these terms interchangeably. Inspiration is really great, because you don't have to rely on a standard concept map, you can create your own! It's also a whole lot neater than handwritten models, and you can change it quickly and easily. I also liked the way that Inspiration could go from a visual diagram view, to a traditional outline view. With this feature, I think students with different learning styles might can utilize whichever style they prefer and learn best with.

Inspiration is without a doubt a valuable tool for educators. Research has shown that when students learn by using a visual representation (like thinking maps), they will understand the concepts better and retain more. Here is a short, and fascinating might I add, clip that shows more evidence for the effectiveness of using mind maps.




Although several help/tip websites were given in our module, the tutorial that I liked best is found here. It's actually five separate little tutorials. I learned so much from these in particular and watched them several times. I learned how to change the effects, background colors, and size of your overall concept map. Also, how to change your text size, color and font, and how to add symbols. Then the tutorial walked me through how to link your icons and create a hyperlink. I found the program to be very userfriendly.

I then began to create a thinking map of my own representing a biography about me. It was actually fun and I think a great assignment to begin practicing with the program. Several hours flew by without me even realizing it!