Thursday, October 11, 2012

Part II: Second Tool Review

The second open source tool I decided to try was Freemind.


Firstly, I would like to say that downloading this program was a lot easier than CMap. And it's free, too!

After the download, you are taken to a page where the first 'parent node' is there for you. You can replace the existing text with your own. 

Easy enough. 

You might be wondering, "Why is she using the word 'node'?"

Well, this program uses the concept of a node (a central connecting point where lines and pathways meet) to create connections to 'sibling' and 'child' nodes.

Then along the left handside, you can find numerous  icons that you can use to 'dress up' your concept map/diagram/PLE. (And add more meaning, I suppose).

Again, a lot of the icons seemed quite useless to me because I just don't need to place lightening bolts and bells on my PLE!

Yet, I still tried to create a PLE diagram using this program. However, I found it limiting in terms of what you can create, due to its structure.

Here's a very simple draft that I made using this program.




Let me know what you think.

In my next blog, I will see how gliffy compares to it!

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