UNIT-3 MIND MAPPING

A mind map is a diagram used to visually organize information. A mind map is hierarchical and
shows relationships among pieces of the whole. It is often created around a single concept,
drawn as an image in the center of a blank page, to which associated representations of ideas
such as images, words and parts of words are added. Major ideas are connected directly to the
central concept, and other ideas branch out from those major ideas.

Mind maps can also be drawn by hand, either as "rough notes" during a lecture, meeting or
planning session, for example, or as higher quality pictures when more time is available. Mind
maps are considered to be a type of spider diagram. A similar concept in the 1970s was "idea sun
bursting".

Although the term "mind map" was first popularized by British popular psychology author and
television personality Tony Buzan, the use of diagrams that visually "map" information using
branching and radial maps traces back centuries. These pictorial methods record knowledge and
model systems, and have a long history in learning, brainstorming, memory, visual thinking,
and problem solving by educators, engineers, psychologists, and others. Some of the earliest
examples of such graphical records were developed by Porphyry of Tyros, a noted thinker of the
3rd century, as he graphically visualized the concept categories of Aristotle. Philosopher Ramon
Llull(1235–1315) also used such techniques.
The semantic network was developed in the late 1950s as a theory to understand human learning
and developed further by Allan M. Collins and M. Ross Quillian during the early 1960s. Mind
maps are similar in radial structure to concept maps, developed by learning experts in the 1970s,
but differ in that the former are simplified by focusing around a single central key concept.

Buzan's specific approach, and the introduction of the term "mind map", arose during a
1974 BBC TV series he hosted, called Use Your Head. In this show, and companion book series,
Buzan promoted his conception of radial tree, diagramming key words in a colorful, radiant,
tree-like structure.

Buzan says the idea was inspired by Alfred Korzybski's general semantics as popularized in
science fiction novels, such as those of Robert A. Heinlein and A. E. van Vogt. He argues that
while "traditional" outlines force readers to scan left to right and top to bottom, readers actually
tend to scan the entire page in a non-linear fashion. Buzan's treatment also uses then-popular
assumptions about the functions of cerebral hemispheres in order to explain the claimed
increased effectiveness of mind mapping over other forms of note making.

Mind map guidelines

Buzan suggests the following guidelines for creating mind maps:

1. Start in the center with an image of the topic, using at least 3 colors.
2. Use images, symbols, codes, and dimensions throughout your mind map.
 3. Select key words and print using upper or lower case letters.
4. Each word/image is best alone and sitting on its own line.
5. The lines should be connected, starting from the central image. The lines become thinner
as they radiate out from the center.
6. Make the lines the same length as the word/image they support.
7. Use multiple colors throughout the mind map, for visual stimulation and also for
encoding or grouping.
8. Develop your own personal style of mind mapping.
9. Use emphasis and show associations in your mind map.
10. Keep the mind map clear by using radial hierarchy or outlines to embrace your branches.

USES OF MIND MAP TECHNIQUE

Rough mind map notes taken during a course session

As with other diagramming tools, mind maps can be used to generate, visualize, structure,
and classify ideas, as an aid to studying and organizing information, solving problems, making
decisions, and writing etc.
Mind maps have many applications in personal, family, educational, and business situations,
including note taking, brain storming (wherein ideas are inserted into the map radially around the
center node, without the implicit prioritization that comes from hierarchy or sequential
arrangements, and wherein grouping and organizing is reserved for later stages), summarizing,
or to sort out a complicated idea. Mind maps are also promoted as a way to collaborate in color
pen creativity sessions. Following are some of the uses of mind mapping.
Meeting Minutes
Comparing with traditional meeting minutes taken on notebooks in a linear structure, mind
mapping meeting arrangement and meeting minutes is easier to catch the point. Taking meeting
minutes with mind map software in a PC requires no handwriting and erasing, and it is more
convenient and time-saving. Besides, a mind map develops in a radiant structure which is exactly
the way human brain works naturally, thus aid quick memorizing.

Before the meeting, prepare organizational content such as place, date and attendees and
overview before the meeting to get familiar with existing materials; form a reasonable layout of
the meeting in mind maps software in advance. During the meeting, type statements of each
speaker in their prototype as possible as you can, list keywords appeared and record solutions
and following tasks. After the meeting,summarize the information with keywords or short
phrases and reorganize the relations between keywords appeared and adjust the mind map notes
to business style. All the information mentioned above are important and can to be captured and
recorded in mind map software for future reference.

Study Notes

During days at the university, mind maps played an essential role in my study in two ways -
taking notes during lectures and studying and review before exams.

Lectures often last longer than classes and illustrating things deeper and further in a divergent
flow, involving almost no interactions, like the way a mind map develops. Mind mapping lecture
notes won’t take much time and helps concentrate on the lecturer rather than your notes. In
addition, linear texts taken in urgency often get you lost because they are usually written mixed
and disorderly. In this case, as an audience, you need to write down information important to you
and points you don’t understand as floating topics separated from other topics. After sorting out
the important information and difficult points, re-illustrate them in concise expressions and
images. Then rearrange the map and share or save it.

Book Summaries

Books are the source of knowledge. Human beings have started reading since thousands of years
ago. Summarizing the content of a book is as important as the process of reading. It’s through a
book summary that you can retell the story, understand the relationship and digest the ideas. It’s
oppressive to talk about a book without a line on time or plots. A book summary in the form of a
mind map can display core ideas, characters, plots,background, time, place reasons, and results
clearly at a glance. A mind map forces students to extract key information from lengthy book
texts with key words and short phrases to understand and memorize the content of a book better.
Mind maps are perfect for summarizing information carried in books. Center the book name on
the canvas as the central topic. In non-fiction books, a lot of core ideas and definitions are listed
to explain concepts. With branches as main concepts illustrated, you can enrich concepts and
ideas with scattered notes, comments or attachments and structure theme for easy
comprehension. In addition, taking book notes on mind maps alleviates your burden of leaving
messy hand-written lines and texts distributed irregularly over pages of a book.

Brainstorming

Brainstorming is a way of making a group of people all spontaneously think about something at
the same time, often in order to solve a problem or to create good ideas. Nowadays,
brainstorming is widely introduced into classes to stimulate students’ creativity and imagination.
Mind maps can be a great tool used during and after the brainstorming.

The process of brainstorming usually involves capturing massive ideas and some of them even
sound ridiculous. During the brainstorming, you need to record all the ideas that pop up around a
certain theme for future reference. Brainstorming always comes with fast discussion and fierce
argument. In this case, you won't have much time recording ideas flash by with writing them
down literally. Mapping the ideas into a mind map allows you to easily capture all the things that
are put out and you can easily later on structure the ideas into something more meaningful. A
mind map develops exactly in accordance with the way human brain works naturally. When you
check the ideas given out in a mind map, you’ll find it much easier to figure out the key points
than picking up useful information from messy linear notes taken in a hurry. The next time a
brainstorming comes, you may try mind mapping.
THE PROBLEM WITH TRADITIONAL/LINEAR NOTES

Think about it: throughout our academical careers, from first grade to graduation, we are
told what to learn, but the standard curriculum hardly ever includes lessons on how to learn.
This is why so many students still spend their study time highlighting passages in text books and
summarizing chapters, when research has conclusively shown that those study methods are
actually the least effective. Similarly, linear notes are still the default format for note-taking for
most people, even though it’s in many ways one of the least practical formats we could possibly
choose. Here are just a few of the biggest problems with linear notes:
 Linear notes can be extremely monotonous, which makes them harder to memorize.
 Traditional note taking often feels laborious for us because it bores us mentally while it
exhausts us physically (try writing for two hours straight and then see how your writing
hand feels – probably not great!)
 Lined paper encourages us to write whole sentences, which is unnecessarily time-
consuming and results in pages upon pages of information of which only a small
percentage is actually important.
 Linear notes don’t provide a good overview of a topic. We often waste valuable time re-
reading large chunks of our notes when looking for individual pieces of information.
 Once a page has been filled, it’s extremely hard to add additional informationto it.
We are forced to squeeze it in between the lines or add it at the bottom of the page with
an asterisk.
 And what about taking notes in Word documents? Research has shown “that whereas
taking more notes can be beneficial, laptop note takers’ tendency to transcribe lectures
verbatim rather than processing information and reframing it in their own words
is detrimental to learning.”

How to Take More Effective Notes with Mind Maps

A mind map is a visual diagram that lets you organize your notes in a two-
dimensional structure. As opposed to linear notes, mind maps are usually created on a blank
piece of paper or canvas, which is used in landscape mode instead of portrait. Instead of
starting at the top left and filling the page until you’ve reached the bottom right, you start your
mind map by writing the subject or headline in the center of the page; then you add your notes
in the form of branches that radiate outwards from the center.
While this new way of making notes may feel a bit odd at first, it offers a range of benefits,
especially if your goal is to retain information:
 A mind map shows relationships, hierarchies and connections between individual
pieces of information at a glance.
 Mind maps provide a great overview of a topic because they store all your notes related
to that topic on one single page.
  Mind maps encourage you to take fewer yet more meaningful notes. While you create
the map, your brain actively processes the information instead of just mindlessly
transcribing it.
 Mind maps use a number of mental triggers such as images, icons, colors and a two-
dimensional structure that help you memorize their contents.
 You can always go back and add more details to a note.
 Taking notes in a mind map is fun and feels more like doodling than actual work!

Purposes of Note taking

There are five major purposes for taking notes:

1. Concentration
2. Understanding
3. Remembering
4. Referral
5. Revision