I've been using Mind maps for many years, since when I was studying in college. I don't use them in their "pure" approach, but I've rather merged this tecnique in a way that it could work with my studying methods.
Mind mapping is fun, and can be applied to everything, from grocery shopping, to business meetings, to lectures. They are easy to do, fun, and follow the natural way human brains work.
Invented by Tony Buzan, a mind map is "a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks, or other items linked to and arranged around a central key word or idea. Mind maps are used to generate, visualize, structure, and classify ideas, and as an aid in study, organization, problem solving, decision making, and writing. The elements of a given mind map are arranged intuitively according to the importance of the concepts, and are classified into groupings, branches, or areas, with the goal of representing semantic or other connections between portions of information [...] By presenting ideas in a radial, graphical, non-linear manner, mind maps encourage a brainstorming approach to planning and organizational tasks. Though the branches of a mindmap represent hierarchical tree structures, their radial arrangement disrupts the prioritizing of concepts typically associated with hierarchies presented with more linear visual cues," (Source: wikipedia).
Theory wants mind maps to be drawn by hand, with the use of colors, images, and not just plain words. Nowadays many computer softwares offer the possibility to mindmap electronically, which is maybe not part of the "pure" approach, but which still can be useful.
Invented by Tony Buzan, a mind map is "a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks, or other items linked to and arranged around a central key word or idea. Mind maps are used to generate, visualize, structure, and classify ideas, and as an aid in study, organization, problem solving, decision making, and writing. The elements of a given mind map are arranged intuitively according to the importance of the concepts, and are classified into groupings, branches, or areas, with the goal of representing semantic or other connections between portions of information [...] By presenting ideas in a radial, graphical, non-linear manner, mind maps encourage a brainstorming approach to planning and organizational tasks. Though the branches of a mindmap represent hierarchical tree structures, their radial arrangement disrupts the prioritizing of concepts typically associated with hierarchies presented with more linear visual cues," (Source: wikipedia).Theory wants mind maps to be drawn by hand, with the use of colors, images, and not just plain words. Nowadays many computer softwares offer the possibility to mindmap electronically, which is maybe not part of the "pure" approach, but which still can be useful.
In this paper, Alberto Martìnez explains the art of note taking using Mindmapping, and gives a flexible perspective on how you can use them in your work/study.
Mindmaps obviously can be used also in the process of learning a new language, and indeed are a very useful and powerful tool, which it's now embedded in my classes since when I started teaching Italian years ago.
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