A SWOC analysis will be most helpful if you use it to support the vision, mission, and objectives you have already defined. The SWOC will at least provide perspective, and at best will reveal connections and areas for action. Source: thinkmarketingmagazine.com
When used well, mind maps can easily be a great aid to understanding-- such as, in highlighting interconnections and patterns that would probably not have emerged from a linear approach. They can also work in presenting a more coherent picture to become presented to except for conventional notes would afford. They can also be included in at a later date as circumstances change or our thoughts and understanding develop.
Some people require to mind maps instantly and quickly become quite proficient utilized them. Others may struggle originally to produce a useful mind map because they are so used to adopting the linear approach to note taking. For this latter group, there is much to become gained from being persistent. The skills could be developed with practice and can, eventually, be required to quite a high level of competence, if certainly not actual expertise. Mind maps may be very useful for getting a feeling of structure and control in connection with the topic in hand. Additionally, its visual nature means that their contents are more probable to become recalled at any future point. So, there are numerous benefits to using this tool. So, when it involves making notes, there is no tightness of practices that are not very helpful and thus do not serve us well. Yet, it is also fair to say that there are constraints to traditional note-taking practices, even when well used. This is because, by their very nature, traditional notes are 'linear'-- that is, they follow a direct structure from point one to point two and so forth. But life isn't linear, and nor is the way our minds operate. What can, therefore, be helpful is s process of note taking that more fully matches our thinking processes. This is where 'mind maps' appeared in.
A mind map is built by putting the topic concerned (whatever it is you intend to make notes about) in a surround the center of the page. From this central focus, you can have other boxes (or lines) that radiate from it with subtopics, problems or impressions that associate with the central focus. Apiece of these secondary boxes or lines, you can establish further subtopics, issues or whatever. This allows the note taker to explore different opportunities, separate lines of thought while considering the topic. This makes the notes multidimensional, and this allows us to become more creative in our thought and more alternative (by giving us an overview of a topic or subject). The example below gives a sense of what is involved. This was produced using mind mapping software, and there are various software application options available, ranging from free to expensive (relying on the additional facilities obtainable within the package concerned). However, software is not needed, as perfectly good mind maps may be produced with pen and paper. Altogether, then, mind maps offer very real capacity for a significant and successful approach to relevant information repository to inform our thinkings, knowledge, and decision. There are many moments when it does, or even essential, to have a register of our ideas and/or the activities to which they relate. Some people seem never to create notes; they simply depend on their memory, which, surely, is not a wise strategy, as it involves committing chance what is recalled and what is not. Other individuals, I'm aware, make massive notes, but never consult them again-- they just file them away as though having them somewhere to hand will be useful. Yet others have no submitting system, so their possibilities of finding any notes they may have taken are comparatively slim anyway. Source: www.socialjusticesolutions.org
An important aspect of any learning is memory. Without it all our learning will be futile. While some are rendered with razor sharp memory, there are others, who find their memory failing them at the most crucial moments in their life. As in everything else, memory can be improved a great deal by applying some of the memory techniques. In any new learning, you can understand new information easily by associating the new information with your acquired learning. This will help you to see the relational aspects of certain principles, mechanism, truth or whatever, and lend greater meaning and significance to the information learnt. Studies have revealed that memory is enhanced by using both sides of your brain. This is known as whole-brain thinking. The left side of our brain controls in logic, words, lists, numbers, sequences and analysis, while the right side excels in rhythm, imagination, daydreaming, color, size and spatial awareness. Working on combining the left and right attributes will strengthen memory. Many problems of memory are primarily due to lack of proper attention. You can visualize what you want to remember by picturing them as a sequence; the more bizarre, humorous and exaggerated the images, greater the recall. You can link the main ideas or items of details by stringing them into an unusual story. E.g. if you have to buy vegetables, pick up laundry and buy toys, you could link them into a story: Tomato quashes on your shirt, you have to go to the laundry for cleaning when Mickey Mouse welcomes you. Using acronyms is an effective way for remembering items in an order by making a word out of each item to be recalled. E.g. My Very Elegant Mother Just Served Us Nine Peas-- represent 9 planets of the sun - Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. When the first letter of each item stands for a word in a phrase it is known as Acrostic. E.g. Pink = Pink is a special color; I like it more for its subtle shade, Never loud or garish; Kind of gentle and pleasing always. Chunking is another effective technique applied often in numbers. For e.g. If you have to remember 10 digit telephone numbers, you can split them into units of 5-- 98412-84523. You can also chunk items under a general concept-- Fruits, Vegetables, etc While these are some of the common techniques for enhancing your memory, an equally powerful and easy technique for reinforcing learning and memory is the Mind Mapping. The Mind Mapping technique is primarily based on how we think, remember and recall. British Psychologist, Mr. Tony Buzan, developed the technique based on the theories of memory. His studies on memory and the brain, led him to invent the Mind Map technique. The intrinsic worth of this technique is that it induces whole-brain thinking by triggering a chain of associated thoughts and ideas, and stimulating the full resources of the brain. Since you note down your thoughts on a subject or issue, you will be engaging your full and focused attention to it. In addition, the technique employs visual stimuli such as colors, pictures, symbols, dimensions, etc., adding to the vividness, and greatly strengthening memory and dissemination. The Mind Map technique is primarily aimed at enhancing your memory vastly, and giving full rein to your inner thoughts and process. It thus has the potential to trigger greater creativity, imagination and insight. It is indeed a great memory grosser!! You have to learn and use the technique and then you will know how your memory never lets you down. Source: ArticleCity
New software that is free for students to download has produced its way to the UA and will help make documents and files easily accessible. Read and Write Gold provides various tools to guide undergraduate and graduate students with their reading and writing materials. The software has text-to-speech abilities, voice recognition and can also be used as a research aid for students with disabilities or for those learning a second language. Dawn Hunziker, the information technology accessibility consultant for the Disability Resource Center, received a grant for the UA to introduce the software. "She mentioned it at a meeting and then I received an email from one of her listservs. I looked more into it and found that it's very useful for anyone who is learning," said Leslie Dupont, coordinator of the graduate writing program for the Writing Skills Improvement Program. "Read and Write Gold will definitely help with students who have accessibility issues.". Dupont mentioned she uses the software mostly with her multilingual students who are learning English as a second language. She said it's a great way for them to learn proper accent and the images provided next to the text aid in learning. She said it helps them while reading because it organizes the text in such a way that they aren't overwhelmed by it. Mary Beth Foster, educational technology coordinator for the SALT Center, said Read and Write Gold features a lot of tools students can use. For example, students have the option to choose from four different colored highlighters that color code their textbook readings and then collect the highlights and put them on a separate Microsoft Word document or PDF file. "This is super convenient for students who want to make outlines or study guides," Foster said. "The majority of students are visual learners, so Read and Write Gold has a tool for that too.".
A tool within the program, called Fact Mapper, acts like a mind-mapping tool that creates bubbles for individual ideas the user has. If a student is using this tool as a tree diagram, they can create one large bubble as the main subject and then multiple sub-bubbles for key words or ideas. Once the student is done, the software converts his or her notes into an outline to visually organize the student's thoughts. "Read and Write Gold has two main options, text to speech and speech to text," Foster said. "Text to speech is programmed so that the computer will read to you. The voices are updated so they don't sound robotic but now they sound sophisticated and more human-sounding. It also highlights the words while it's reading and allows students to adjust the speed for slow and fast readers.". Foster said tracking the speed will allow students to be more focused, and if they want to hear it on the go, they can download the reading file as an MP3 file. She said if students are working out at the gym but have to read assignments or textbook pages, the software allows them to listen to their readings on their smartphones.
"It works on a PC where the computer goes into a training mode that you are able to speak into the computer and it does as you command," Fpster said. "It recognizes your speech patterns so it can mimic your voice and talk out ideas while typing at the same time.". Students can also train the computer by reading passages while the computer listens and captures the pronunciations. Foster said she created tutorial videos on how to use the resources. She encourages students to install the software. The SALT Center will work with students one-on-one to make sure they are getting the experiences they deserve. Source: Wilcat.Arizona.edu
Read more to discover 5 HUGE advantages mind mapping software offers you or your business!
Mind maps are one of the best productivity tools you can use to help you record and categorize any thoughts you have that may prove useful to you in the future! Now how many of you have had ideas which seemed great at the time but went unrecorded and therefore were rendered useless! Mind mapping allows you to capture any relevant or interesting thoughts, ideas or concerns in a somewhat organized trend! The best part is how this software helps you literally visualize your ideas and pull them combined in a way they will prove most useful to you! Let's now take the time to further examine 5 HUGE advantages mind mapping software offers you or your business! Capture Mind mapping software allows you to immediately capture and even categorize any thoughts or ideas you may have before they're forgotten! Simply taking note of what is on your mind is NOT as effective because hand written notes tend to be haphazard, unrelated and disorganized! When you come back to review what you've recorded by hand later on, making sense of what you're viewing will than be more challenging! Visualize Nothing (of significance) happens UNTIL it can be first gotten the picture and software used for mapping out and organizing random thoughts helps you do so! Productivity tools like this that help you 'capitalize' on your own creativity or ingenuity allow you to format or layout any thoughts in a useful way that make sense! Much like a puzzle, your captured thoughts are 'pieces' that you can rearrange in any way you please to perform your purpose best! Expand Being able to view your ideas in various (visual) formats helps to further promote your own creative thinking thus allowing you to expand on your idea! It's all about focusing on the problem, opportunity or need and when you do so, new answers or applications tend to 'flood' into your mind! In short having the capability to visualize something helps you focus more on the particular matter or issue! Polish Capturing 'fleeting' ideas you can put to use later on is a dominant benefit of mind mapping software! One huge advantage here is you can go back and refine any thoughts you've recorded to make them better adapt to your current needs! By virtue of the fact that you are able to format or arrange any recorded ideas in a particular manner makes it easier to pick up on what you were previously thinking without much effort! The result is less time is wasted when trying to resuscitate your previous 'brainstorming' session thus making this type software one of the best productivity tools you can use! Saving time while maximizing your own creative thinking abilities is definitely being productive, don't you think? Put to Use The intention of the software discussed here today is to catch, sort and organize your ideas so they can be put to constructive use! Much like keeping windows and doors shut so as NOT to allow heat or cooler temperatures to escape, mind mapping does much the same with your thoughts and ideas! Even if what you record may not be of particular relevance at the time, there is likely an application for it sometime in your future!
Mind maps are one of the best productivity tools you can use to harness your thoughts and creativity in a way that you can actually put to use! For marketers who work online mind mapping software is an excellent way to capture otherwise short lived thoughts and/or ideas that can be further developed for future use! Even though the 5 benefits reviewed above are all of considerable importance to any entrepreneur, your imagination is the only limitation to how many uses you can find for such a tool! Based on ArticlesFactory.com
Malmö, Sweden (March, 2016)-- Seavus and Adobe worked on integrating Adobe's image editor within iMindQ's online mind mapping app, and announce the latest release of iMindQ Online 4.0, the first mind mapping tool with Adobe's Creative Cloud Connected image editor The application also supplies new Research tab, social media sharing of interactive HTML mind maps and On-Screen Tutorials. Built-in Adobe Creative Cloud Connected image editor. iMindQ Online is the first to offer an image editor from Adobe's Creative Cloud Connected, which offers flexibility in customization and editing of graphics that are inserted within mind maps. Users can discover their creativity by being able to utilize filters, add stickers, manipulate with color, crop, rotate and use many other tools to edit and customize the images within the Creative Cloud image editor. The mind maps can also be exported as editable images, and users can use the Creative Cloud editor to edit the mind map screenshots beyond their creation. Research tab for image search by keyword. With iMindQ Online, users will be able to boost their mind maps by inserting images from the new Research tab, which provides image search by keyword from Flickr and Open Clipart. This provides users to be able to easily pick out images aligning with the context of their ideas and insert them within the topics or subtopics of their mind maps Social Sharing of HTML mind maps. The latest release of iMindQ Online offers an option to straight share interactive HTML mind maps via the social media networks Twitter and LinkedIn. The interactive HTML mind map can be opened inside any browser, edited and saved again from the browser. This feature enables users to build upon ideas and share their knowledge with connections that do not have the native program.
Interactive On-Screen Tutorial For all new users to iMindQ Online, there is now an Interactive On-screen tutorial, which offers a fast and easy introduction to using the program and the mind mapping technique. Marjan Mansournia, Business Development Manager expresses: "With the launch of the newest release of iMindQ Online we have followed the needs of our users, and have steered the app to complement the desktop version of the software, but at the same time provide exciting and innovative features for users to easily generate and share ideas. The demand for mind mapping apps that enable users to create mind maps on any device is increasing, and iMindQ Online delivers just that and more, giving users the unique chance to enjoy an interactive way to present, share and collaborate on ideas, through interactive HTML mind maps.". The free demo of iMindQ Online is available on the following link: app.imindq.com To learn more about iMindQ Online, visit: www.imindq.com/mind-mapping-online
, developed the technique based on the theories of memory. His studies on memory and the brain, led him to invent the Mind Map technique.
