Professionalism

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Professionalism Personal Skills

• Facilitation Tools
• Mind Maps and the Use of Visual Information

S4
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What is a Mind Map?

• A mind map is a personal memory aid
• you create it
• Mind maps can be used to
• help solve problems
• enhance study techniques
• organise notes
• plan essays
• revise
• Mind maps were developed by Tony Buzan
• see The Mind Map Book by Tony Buzan (1993)

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Example of a Mind Map 1
James Cook University Study Skills on line. Mind
Mapping http//www.tld.jcu.edu.au/netshare/learn/m
indmap/index.html
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Mind Maps

• Learning to create mind maps takes time and
  practice
• Mind maps use and stimulate the visual abilities
  of the mind
• The benefits are that they enhance the memorys
  storing and recalling capabilities through the
  use of images for emphasis and association
• If represented visually a subject can be
  understood and remembered much more efficiently.

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Mind Maps

• Activity 4.1
• Activity 4.2
• Activity 4.3

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Mind Maps

• Activities 4.1, 4.2 and 4.3 illustrate the power
  and potential of images in
• problem solving
• organising information
• learning and
• memorising systems and information.

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Images

• Human brain has a huge capacity for remembering
  images
• In an experiment where individuals were shown and
  asked to remember 2460 images (one per second
  with short breaks every few hundred images)
• 94 accuracy when asked to recall via choice
  between pairs of previously seen image and one
  not previously seen.

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Images

• 24 of people say they have no visualisation
  capacity
• incapable of creating images
• no ability to paint or draw
• they probably mistake initial failure for
  fundamental incapacity or
• images and colours are somehow perceived as
  primitive, childish, immature or irrelevant

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Example of a Mind Map 2
From The Mind Map Book Tony Buzan (1993)
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Summary of Mind Map Laws 1

• Techniques
• Use Emphasis
• always use a central image - worth a thousand
  words
• use images throughout your Mind Map
• use three or more colours
• use dimension in images and around words

NOW!
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Summary of Mind Map Laws 2

• Words should be printed
• more photogenic
• more immediate
• easier to read
• Words should be on a line
• Each line connected to other lines
• this gives basic structure
• Words should be in units
• one word per line
• gives more free hooks

BiG
Medium
Small
Tiny
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Mind Maps Should be Fun!

• Mind maps are about radiant thinking
• The mind should be left as free as possible
• too much thinking about where things should go or
  whether they should be included will simply slow
  down the process
• They should
• enhance the memory!
• delight the eye!
• stimulate the right cortical processes!

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The disadvantages of standard notes

• They obscure key words
• important ideas are conveyed by key words that
  bring back sprays of relevant associations
  whenever they are read or heard. In standard
  notes these key words often appear on different
  pages , obscured by the mass of less important
  words.

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The disadvantages of standard notes

• They make it difficult to remember or analyse
• monotonous, single colour notes are visually
  boring. As such they are rejected and forgotten.
  Take the form of endless similar looking lists.
  The sheer monotony of making such lists puts the
  brain in a semi-hypnotic trance, making it
  impossible to remember their content. Just like
  this slide

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The disadvantages of standard notes

• They waste time
• by encouraging unnecessary noting
• by requiring the reading of unnecessary notes
• by requiring re-reading of unnecessary notes
• by requiring the searching for key words

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The disadvantages of standard notes

• They fail to stimulate the brain creatively
• the linear presentation of standard notes
  prevents the brain from making associations, thus
  counteracting creativity and memory. Also when
  faced with list style notes, the brain constantly
  has the sense that it has come to the end or
  finished - slowing and stifling our thought
  processes.

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Mind Maps in Note Taking and Revision

• One immediate use of mind maps is in taking and
  organising notes from lectures or seminars
• They provide an excellent medium for enhancing
  learning and revision for tests and examinations

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Mind Maps

• Activity 4.4