Tech Talk Brainstorming and Collaborating Online Lucius Von Joo Lucius Von Joo currently teaches at Kanda University of International Studies, Japan. He graduated with an EdM in Comparative and International Education and has taught deaf education, elementary education and EFL/ESL in California, Japan and New York in the past 10 years. His research interests include computer assisted learning, film and documentary content based learning, discussion skill pragmatics, teacher training origins and application of lessons, student educational backgrounds and learning approaches, video-cued multivocal ethnography, and family and communities as educators. Online collaboration is becoming commonplace with platforms like Google docs, oneDrum and even regular email chains that promote document sharing. These platforms are great to use once a document is ready to be typed up. This online collaboration is really useful, however what about pre-document or project brainstorming? I started to research online applications that allowed forms of brainstorming. I wanted to find an application, which students can use to collaborate both in person and/or remotely. This kind of application would allow for groups to work autonomously with just the right amount of facilitation, plus the online aspect can promote distant learning between international peers. In this tech talk I will be reviewing and explaining one application that fits this criteria fully, and will follow up with two honorable mentions.
Setting up an account with Spiderscribe:
The online software that I am going to explain in detail, Spiderscribe, allows you to make mind maps online with blending together multiple mediums. The honorable mentions are Benettonplay’s Flipbook, which makes a flash based flipbook, and Storyboard That, which as the title suggests is a story boarding application. The latter two programs have their limitations but are worth mentioning as a different means of brainstorming.
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1. Go to spiderscribe.net. You can take a tour from this page to get a better feel for the software or just go straight to sign up.
Make sure to pick the free account. The description of what it offers may seem limiting however I have found that it is more than adequate for all my classes.
Spiderscribe: As I mentioned this application is a mind-mapping platform that is very intuitive and user friendly. When I first thought of a mind mapping application online I was a little skeptical, as it seemed to me that pen and paper would be faster. However, the many options, quick use, and possibility for collaboration with distant peers really made me change my mind. The free user level for this software offers more than enough for most classroom uses and is really easy to sign up for. Below I will quickly run through setting up an account, creating a mind map and sharing your mind map with other users who will be able to read or even edit it.
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The sign up process is pretty quick and straightforward. Once you have filled in an email address, password, and encrypted character code you will be taken straight into your account without any confirmation email follow ups. A short registration with very little security checks is always a major plus when setting up accounts with students.
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To add your first text bubble click on the text icon and drag the bubble to where you want it. Once the bubble is where you want it you can type in text. You can change the size and style of the font and bubble color and size with the Properties box on the right.
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Creating a Mind Map 1.
On this screen you will see all your saved and shared mind maps. Click on
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This will take you to a window where you can write out a title and description for your mind map. You will be able to edit both the title and description in the future. If your students are collaborating with their mind maps or plan to share with others you may want to emphasize unique titles so that you don’t have a bunch of mind maps with generic titles such as: “my mind map.”
After you have put the first bubble you can add more text bubbles like a traditional mind map or add documents, images, maps or calendars. In the example below I have dragged a calendar bubble. To connect the bubbles just put the mouse on the button of the bubble where you will see a plus sign appear click and drag the arrow where you want it to connect to.
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You are now ready to start making your mind map. The mind map creation screen has a few icons that may seem overwhelming however after running through them once, students should have no problem. On the top bar there is the helpful undo button, which allows for a safe trial and error process. The icons on the left hand of the page are the options that you can put in your mind map through a drag and drop system. In order from top to bottom they are text, document, picture, map and calendar. 7.
In this step I added an additional row of text bubbles with website links in them, Spiderscribe automatically creates these hyperlinks when you type a .com, .net or any other web address. I followed these links with a sublevel of images to help understand what the text is referring to.
When you drag a document or image bubble onto your map you will be prompted to upload an image or file. You can do this at any time so if you do not have the images or files with you, you can still put one of these bubbles in as a place marker.
Anyone you invite will receive an email that looks like this:
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If your mind map gets too big on the screen you can always zoom out or you can scroll around quickly using the navigation controls located in the bottom right.
After they click on the link all they will have to do is quickly sign up or login and they will have access to your mindmap. Honorable mentions Flipbook Deluxe:
I have used this application when students had to pitch a single idea to others in class. Go to: benettonplay.com/toys/flipbookdeluxe/. This is a long address for a very simple application. On the homepage you can watch flipbooks that others have made or just go straight into making your own. Click on Make
Sharing a Mind Map 1.
Sharing mind maps with Spiderscribe is really easy and there are many clear options that you can choose from that really help out with classroom sharing. The first step is to click on the share icon.
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A share window will pop up and you can pick if you want to have your mind map public or private. You can get embed codes to use in websites publically or just share with others you personally invite. To add people you want to share the mind map with, all you need to do is enter their email address. At this stage you can choose whether people you invite can view or edit and collaborate. You can also enable invitees to invite other people as well. These options are the cream and butter for this software as a classroom tool. Students can save their maps share and develop ideas with others regardless of whether they are near or far.
Once the flipbook page opens you can start drawing on the pad.
Once you finish your illustration click on the the right arrow to go to the next slide or duplicate the slide to add or edit making a clear flipbook. Once you have finished your flipbook you can register and publish. There are also embedding and emailing options to share the finished
flipbook. This application is good for a quick way to have students put their idea into images that can be quickly understood by peers. Storyboard That: This application is good for storyboarding before students write out a longer story or video project. 1. Go to storyboardthat.com. From here click on create a storyboard
2. You now just drag and drop the characters, backgrounds and actions into the storyboard squares to layout a story plan.
because they are meant for the type of in depth demands of a product development team. 4. I noticed that using Spiderscribe adds dimension to ideas. We have become more and more dependent on using visuals from the Internet to clarify our ideas and these images can be easily added with Spiderscribe’s tools. 5. Often brainstorming notes are thrown out once the document is started, however with Spiderscribe the mind map is saved online and can be referred to in the furture to generate and develop other ideas. Possible Limitations of Spiderscribe: 1. Spiderscribe is a flash based program, which means that it cannot be used on an IPhone or IPad. 2. With the free profile setting in Spiderscribe you are limited to three private mind maps. However this should not be a problem because if you make your mind maps public there is no limit to how many you make. Also if someone shares a private mind map with you it does not count towards your quota. 3. At the free setting mind maps are limited to 3mb of data so if you wanted to use your mind map to house large documents you may run into some limitations. For example this document as a work file is 8mb with all the images. Final Remarks:
3. After you have created your storyboard you can save it, print it or share it. To do this you must make an account. This is the best storyboarding application I found that is free, however you are limited to only two layouts and you can only make three storyboards a month. The element that I really didn’t like about this application is that students cannot draw their own images they are limited to the image library which could be both distracting and convaluting. The Overall Benefits of Spiderscribe: 1. The application is clear and free to use. Free is really a nice option for software in a class because there is no commitment for continued use if it does not work out. 2. As I mentioned a few times in this article Spiderscribe offers the best method of sharing and collaborating. Both Flipbook Deluxe and Storyboard That are limited to only sharing a finished product. I also looked at a few other collaborative mind-mapping applications but the collaborative choice was usually something you had to upgrade and pay for. 3. Spiderscribe is very easy and user-friendly; many other mind-mapping applications get pretty complicated
I have used other mind mapping software in the past that was easier to use but was limited to very static text bubbles. Spiderscribe really utilizes aspects of what other programs have done with sharing files online and puts them all in one place. It is really easy to imagine all that this application can do from planning ideas for papers or class videos to planning a very clear layout for a class trip. I noticed that while I was learning the program I was very pleased at each of the features offered. Each time I wanted a feature to exist such as sharing and editing the mind map it did. And then, when I thought it would be great if invitees could invite others so that the mind map could keep growing I found that this too was an option. Spiderscribe is a very flexible brainstorming application with many different uses. This type of flexibility promotes autonomous learning in which the student can create and achieve their own demands. Dear Readers, If you have any requests for future Tech Talks please feel free to contact me. Any request is greatly appreciated and can range from a specific program you want explained to a general lesson you have that you want to incorporate technology into. Thank you, Lucius lucius-v@kanda.kuis.ac.jp