My technology inquiry question is how can I create an online evolving brain stroming space with a class? This brought me and my group to mindmeister an online mind mapping software. Through exploring this we have found a number of other ways that it can be applied within our classes. We thought it was a great way to present terminology and complicated topics in a non overwhelming manner. We also thought it would act great as a space to facilitate discussion over specific questions that relate to eachother. The pros of mindmeister is that it has collaborative aspects built in which makes it great for a classroom. It is easily operated so anyone with a device can access it. The UI is also appealing and adds to the simplicity. The cons are how poorly the phone port works and how little you can accomplish with the free version. The pro version isn’t too expensive but it would probably be more valuable to find a mind mapping software that operated similarly for free. I think the greatest takeaway from the inquiry is that mindmesiter would be great for creating a FAQ for a class so that over the years student questions can be added and students can refer back to the mindmap FAQ when they have questions to streamline the troubleshooting component of learning and by browsing the FAQ students can also correct misconceptions they have about specific topics.

My involvment in the project was to look into how mindmeister could be used in a grade 11 chemistry class. I made my own mindmap and linked it to our original mindmap and then filmed a short video breaking down my mindmap. I don’t think anything I came across challenged my current perspective of technology in the classroom but I think that by playing with the tool I was able to think of some creative applications of Mindmesiter that I would employ in my teaching. If I had the premium version I would be able to create my visions in the tool and share that with students who can access it throgh the free version. The collaboration would be a little choppy but ideally I could use other technologies to streamline the process.