Exploring Creaza

After reading Abbie's post about Creaza, I went back to explore it.  I have used mind mapping as a student in graduate school and also in my library class lessons.  I don't remember using it before my graduate studies.  When I first started using it, I realized that I am a visual learner and that mind mapping was a natural fit for me.  It is an important tool to offer students to enhance study skills, research, brain storming, creating, etc.  I do like Creaza in terms of free software products.  I think that is is easy to use and versatile.  I did find myself comparing it to Kidspiration and Inspiration (graphic organizer/mind mapping programs).  These products are not free.  Importing pictures is easier in Kidspiration in that it is a one step process.  With Creaza, I had to upload my pictures into a media library and then select the ones that I wanted to insert into Creaza.  Thank you Sandy, I was able to figure this out after receiving your email with instructions.  I like the fact that Kidspiration has many templates preprogrammed such as Venn diagrams, compare and contrast, and such for different subject areas.  I also like that one can create a graphic organizer of a topic in Kidspiration and then click a button to convert it into notecards so that they can see the relationship between the graphic and written notes.  I have used Kidspiration with students to brain storm ideas for writing poems.  With 2nd grade, we explored everybody books and poetry books about the seasons.  Then students worked in pairs to brainstorm in Kidspiration before beginning to create poems about the seasons.  Mind mapping is a great tool for beginning to explore a unit topic.  Students can explore online encyclopedia articles which give an overview of a topic and simultaneously create a mind map of topics and subtopics in Creaza or Kidspiration that they would like to incorporate into their work or research project.  This activity helps students to see clearly how the contextual framework in encyclopedias can help them to explore a topic and either broaden or narrow the topic down.  Just a final comment on mind mapping.  I am reading, The Element, by Sir Ken Robinson as my summer read book.  He states that "when people are in the zone, they align naturally with a way of thinking that works best for them."  (pg. 96) Then he gives the example of his daughter using mind mapping in her study of the Civil War.  It took her from a place of boredom with the lectures to a depth of understanding and total recall after mind mapping the information that was presented.   The use of the mind mapping transformed the process for her.