OpenMind
“Organizing ideas and concepts into graphic patterns has been explored for years by cognitive educators. Mind Mapping builds a process structure or 'map' over the content body of the material a person has gathered, thereby organizing it for development. Constructivism, simply stated, is the philosophy that we learn by organizing new concepts and ideas relative to our own experience. Mind Mapping mirrors constructivistic theory. Research has shown that developing mind maps increases thinking, memory and learning skills. Recently Lehigh acquired a software program called OpenMind, which takes the idea of Mind Mapping to a new level."

Johanna Brams, MSEdT, Lehigh University
- “The student spends hours in the library, takes copious notes, finds diverse and bountiful sources, makes innumerable copies, and finally trudges back to his room to write his paper. At his desk, he stares at the pile of material. Where to start? How to organize it? He makes several false starts at writing, finally gives up, and goes out to a movie. Perhaps it will be easier to ask his instructor for an extension.”
As a former Communications and English instructor, I can readily attest to the fact that one of the largest stumbling blocks in teaching students how to write and/or present well is the question of how to teach them how to organize their material. Students frequently are only able to write sequentially, from point A to point B, and because their content is usually discovered non-sequentially - they are hard put to place their material into any kind of coherent structure.

Mind Mapping is not a new idea. Chunking ideas and outlining them is usually taught in Middle School. Organizing ideas into graphic patterns has been explored for years by cognitive educators, and some years ago an individual named Tony Buzan formalized this approach into a technique now known and copyrighted as "Mind Mapping."

Since outlining is sequential, it can be difficult to work with, especially for students who have trouble with process. By using looser, non-sequential graphic patterns to organize material, the process is made more coherent - especially for people who may not be process oriented, but may be visually oriented. For some years, educators have been using several different kinds of software to help students brainstorm for ideas and assist them in creating a cognitive "mind -map" of existing material. Recently Lehigh acquired a software program called OpenMind -- http://www.matchware.com/en/products/openmind/default.htm -- which takes the idea of Mind Mapping to a new level.

Mind Mapping creates a process structure or "map" over the content body of the material a person has gathered, thereby organizing it for development. Research has shown that developing mind maps increases thinking, memory and learning skills. Because the material is developed in chunks, in detail, with each branch of the material thought out, and related to all other material; a more comprehensive learning experience occurs. Mind mapping can be said to mirror the idea that teaching (or presenting ideas) creates a more thorough learning experience than simply "learning."

Human beings do not think sequentially. People think three-dimensionally, connecting new material or ideas most readily to those concepts in their own experience that are most similar - in other words, they adhere more quickly to concepts that are familiar to them, embedded in their own body of experience. This theory of learning is called Constructivism. Constructivism, simply stated, is the philosophy that we learn by organizing new concepts and ideas relative to our own experience. Mind Mapping mirrors constructivistic theory.

After a student has gathered content and needs to chunk that content and then order those chunks; there is usually a point where hesitation and confusion occurs. The student is at a loss of how to create order out of his chaotic assembly of ideas and concepts. Constructivistically, he is experiencing "cognitive dissonance" - taken as an unorganized whole, the material does not easily assimilate into his body of experience.

By chunking material into related bits, and then mapping it visually, this chasm of confusion can be bridged. OpenMind organizes content by "storyboarding" it, and then goes one step further than previous versions of mapping software -- by integrating the content into a Word outline, a PowerPoint presentation or an HTML website. (OpenMind also works with Mediator, a graphic interface for web authoring.)

The Open Mind software is especially useful for collaborative research projects, in which a team of students attempts to organize not only diverse content, but sundry perspectives into some sort of logical order. If student teams want to make web presentations from their gathered material, OpenMind is valuable in that it makes the learning curve especially flat - time is not wasted on learning to use technology. Moreover, OpenMind is intuitive and easy to use.
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