Edublogs Serendipity webinar overview – Mind-mapping

Preface

If you access the link to the recording it would be great if you would just Tweet me (@JoHart) or leave a short comment on this post to let me know. I would really like to know if it is useful to people when I post the overviews & recording links

Introduction

In this session, recorded as usual, the topic we chose by poll at the start – from a combination of suggestions by participants and some taken from the Wallwisher – was Mind-mapping. The way we approched this was very different from the fantastic Fine Focus webinar on Graphic Organizers that Shelly Terrell presented for us back in January. So even if you were in Shelly’s session it’s still well worth checking out the recording for this one!

The Session

The chosen topic of mind-mapping was one of those I had taken from the Wallwisher and to my great delight the “owner” of that topic was with us! I feel that sessions are better when the original “owner” of the chosen topic is present.

We began with a quick poll to find out how many of us use mindmapping tools of some sort. The outcome was unanimous – everyone present uses mind mapping in some form. All of us use, or have used, mind mapping software as well as the more traditional pen/pencil & paper approach.

Next we use the whiteboard and shared some of the different applications/tools we currently use for mind-mapping, and in some cases links to mind maps. We moved on to hear from participants through audio (and some through text chat) about  the tools they use.

Then we decided to have a “play” with bubbl.us which is the most recent mind mapping tool that I have used (to plan the content and structure for a “Welcome disc” to help my online literacy students get to grips with e-learning). I like this one for its simplicity and ease of use. I was able to application share and we could easily collaborate/brainstorm with individuals taking control of my desktop to add ideas and organise the content. Our topic – suggested by someone in the group was “Surviving Easter without gaining weight” – the resulting mindmap looks like this:

olpfsvx_Easterresize

If anyone would like some “homework” I would love a brainstormed mindmap about how we can improve the Serendipity/Fine Focus webinars and encourage more people to attend.

Conclusion

This was a great session with a variety of tools and ideas shared, and we got to “play” as well – giving me a great graphic to include in this post. My takeaways are more mind map tools to try!

Our Next Session

FineFocusSmallOur next Webinar is an Edublogs “Fine Focus” session.  This week’s session “24/7 global connectedness – a blessing or a curse?” will be  a facilitated discussion on some of the impacts both postive and negative of  our ever increasing worldwide connectivity. Join us on Thursday March 24th at 23:00 GMT/UTC the time for you will vary depending on your timezone (check yours here) Thursday afternoon/evening in the USA, late night Thursday in Europe, and Friday morning in Australia – in the usual Elluminate room

In the Future

If you are a regular visitor to our webinars you will know that we alternate “Fine Focus” sessions on specific topics with “Serendipity” the unconference sessions where we choose a topic by poll at the start of the session. Sometimes the very fact of being asked for “hot topics” or other ideas for discussion or learning tends to make our minds blank. This has prompted me to start a Serendipity Wallwisher for topic suggestions. Please visit the wall and add your ideas for Serendipity topics so that we have more choices to consider. Some of these ideas might also form the basis for future “Fine Focus” sessions.

Edublogs webinar overview – Graphic Organisers

Preface

If you access the link to the recording it would be great if you would just leave a short comment on this post to let me know. I would really like to know if it is useful to people when I post the overviews & recording links

Introduction

One of those rare sessions where I was not actually there! I was laid low by a migraine and was unable to join this exciting recorded session by Shelly Terrell. So as I have said before “recordings are a wonderful thing” because even though I wasn’t there I am still able to write an overview. Phil did a great job on the introductions etc and Shelly was, as always, fabulous! I am so sorry that I missed the live session – I was really looking forward to it and although recordings are great the lack of ability to participate is very frustrating.

The Session

Shelly began with some introductory information and talked about the most simple forms of graphic organiser. She used a simple graphic organiser (GO) format to ask for input from participants on what they already knew about them and then what they would like to know/find out.The “what we already know” made a great Wordle!

WhatWeKnowGOWordleResize

The next part of the session included a variety of ideas on using GO with students – Shelly showed us some great images of mind maps/GO from her students. Shelly then moved on to look at some online GOs especially for mobile use, again sharing brilliant ideas on using these with students particularly for collaborative activities.

Next Shelly used Application Share to share a wiki with links for a wide variety of graphic organisers/mindmapping. This includes paper-based, downloadable, online, rubrics and many extra ideas and resources. Shelly then showed us some of the ones she has used giving a great “flavour” of what is available!

Finally it was a return to the original graphic organiser to complete the “what as been learnt” and “how to find out more” sections.

Conclusion

As is always the case with Shelly’s sessions this was terrific! From watching the recording I have learned much more about GOs and how they may be used. The links provided via the wiki are invaluable and once again I have a huge list of things to check out from one of these sessions.

Next Webinar

SerendipitybsmallOur next session is an Edublogs “Serendipity” session on Thursday Feb 3rd at 23:00 GMT/UTC (6pm USA EST, Midnight BST) or Friday Feb 4th at 1am CEST, 7am West Aus, 10am NSW, depending on your timezone – in the usual Elluminate room. This is one of our fortnightly unconference sessions where we invite you to bring along your “hot topics” and “burning issues” for our poll on the topic of the day. If you want to propose a topic in advance then visit the Serendipity Wallwisher and add your topic.

In the Future

If you are a regular visitor to our webinars you will know that we alternate “Fine Focus” sessions on specific topics with “Serendipity” the unconference sessions where we choose a topic by poll at the start of the session. Sometimes the very fact of being asked for “hot topics” or other ideas for discussion or learning tends to make our minds blank. This has prompted me to start a Serendipity Wallwisher for topic suggestions. Please visit the wall and add your ideas for Serendipity topics so that we have more choices to consider. Some of these ideas might also form the basis for future “Fine Focus” sessions.