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Mappy Awards 2017: January ~ February ~ March ~ April ~ May ~ June
July ~ August ~ September ~ October ~ November ~ December
(Winners so far: Business / Education / Personal / General / English / Kids / Fun / Handmade / French / Spanish / Mind Maps)
(Click HERE for BIGGER version)
Mad Mapper’s Muse: This isn’t the first map by Paul Foreman we’ve featured in the Mappy Awards, and I dare say it wont’ be the last!
Innovation is the topic and wow, has he created an innovative map to illustrate the concept! It’s an absolute joy to wander around its branches discovering all the little word-plays and visual winks he’s concocted (or hatched or brewed if you prefer).
I’m despairing, as I oftens say, to discover truly pleasant mind maps in some of the more ‘serious’ categories and I’m afraid to say the Business category is one of the main offenders. Many of the maps you will see if you search for mind maps for business are terribly lacking any form of creative inspiration and innovative is about the last word you’d use to describe them.
So without going on about what this map does a much better job than me of explaining, I’ll just let you enjoy what a truly inventive map covering a business topic can look like – and hand-drawn at that – hoping that I’ll see a few more like this in the future – thanks for cheering me up Paul!
Author’s Comment: Thinking about it…
Web Addresses: Mind Map Inspiration ~ found on Intelligence HQ ~ Direct Link Here
(Click HERE for BIGGER version)
Mad Mapper’s Muse: Daniel’s an old hand at mind mapping and has produced some very fine pieces and look: he’s still at it in 2017!
This isn’t the first of Daniel’s maps we’ve honoured in the Mappy Awards and I have a feeling it won’t be the last. His ‘Weekly Action Plan’ is particularly useful because not only does it allow student to plan their study weeks, but it also lets them record their progress.
As we know, this is extremely motivating and helps learners to stay on track when the final target (such as passing – or not! – an exam) can seem very far away indeed.
He’s also added a few other motivational tricks such as a big space for students to personalise the map with their name and a couple of inspirational calls to action.
Finally, directly under the daily target circles he writes a positive sentence which says that the task has been completed. I would suggest that the students colour in this rectangle only when they have successfully completed all of the week’s assignments as a powerful psychological reward.
I’m getting heavily into positive education and modern, personalised and scientifically proven tips and tricks to stimulate the brain into doing its best. Daniel’s colourful Weekly Action Plan is a great step in the right direction. I recommend you create something similar for your students if you have any. If not, start studying something and do one for yourself!
Author’s Comment: Thinking about it…
Web Addresses: Facebook ~ Biggerplate ~ Direct Link Here
(Click HERE for BIGGER version)
Mad Mapper’s Muse: This is a fine mind map I reckon, and that’s on a couple of levels.
Firstly I like Cristian’s use of colours and pictures – they really liven up the presentation and make you excited about discovering the content. And then there’s the content.
I’ve long been a fan of Brian Tracy, ever since I discovered his work in the self-help arena through his short but seminal book ‘Eat That Frog’, which is about… eating frogs, of course! Since then I’ve often looked at his books and even now I enjoy what he’s doing on-line and still learning from it.
Cristian’s impressive mind map deftly encapsulates what looks like some sort of seminar Tracy gave on his ‘Success Secrets’ and even the map is a fascinating read, so I can only imagine what the whole presentation must have been like.
Thanks for this Cristian, it presents a lot of valuable life-optimising content in a concise form and illustrates the powerful book-summarising potential of mind mapping amongst other things. Done any more?
Author’s Comment: Thinking about it…
Web Addresses: Biggerplate ~ Facebook (non-confirmed)
(Still looking for a BIGGER version…)
Mad Mapper’s Muse: I don’t actually think this lovely mind map is by Olga Koshelev but I found it on a Russian web site called Home & Work as part of an article by this lady and that’s a good as I can do for now.
In any case it’s a super piece because it’s clear, cheerful and charming. Whether it was done just for the exercise of making a one-off mind map or is a regular weekly activity is unclear but whoever did it certainly has the artist’s touch.
It’s the sort of map that makes you think: I wish I could do mind maps like that, or maybe, I wish I had the time to make mind maps like that!
I’m terribly behind in my own mind map making and this is going to inspire me to get going again just for the pure pleasure of it, which is one of the reasons I started in the first place. Thanks for a bit of back to basics beauty, mystery mapper. ?
Author’s Comment: Welcome any time!
Web Addresses: Home & Work
(Click HERE for BIGGER version)
Mad Mapper’s Muse: This powerful hand-drawn English language map comes from a blog called Learning English, or maybe Apprendre Anglais, which is French, but whatever the case it hasn’t been updated since 2009.
So whether or not it was created by the author of the article, given as Jonathan Lewis or not, I like it! Why do I like it? Because it takes an important concept in English – that of necessity and permission as expressed through modal verbs – and explains it clearly and colourfully.
The technique the author uses is perfectly suited to a mind map and this can be repeated for many language situations. He asks questions where the answer is (usually) Yes or No. Then, depending on your response, you continue along one branch or the other.
Very quickly you get to the actual language you need, along with some useful examples to get you going and productive quickly. Sweet!
Author’s Comment: Thinking about it…
Web Addresses: Learning English Blog
Mad Mapper’s Muse: Great! This is very clear and very similar to a map I did for my son Léo where each spoke is a daily chore or event, such as brushing his teeth or going to bed, with a time attached. Does it work? Yes and no! Sometimes we’re way off for various reasons, but often enough it’s he who tells me when we’re running over schedule. This certainly wouldn’t be the case if the map wasn’t there as a reminder of the ground rules.
Some would say this map doesn’t follow common guidelines about one work per branch, with is true, but it’s certainly one idea per branch, clearly illustrated with an image at the end which is easy for the kids to understand, especially when they are still learning to read.
Additionally, it’s quite good for new readers to see words in sentences and not in isolation so they start to understand how everything fits together.
As a teacher myself, I might be tempted to replace the redundancy of each sentence starting with ‘Learn to…’ with more varied and personalised language, such as ‘Weed grandma’s garden’, ‘Make a tasty salad’, ‘Fold towels nicely’ or ‘Replace loo roll when finished’!
I should also mention that as well as being a member of our Mind Map Mad group on Facebook, Nic is the author of a book called One Trillion Stories for Kids, which I haven’t actually seen yet, but which you can discover on his web site, linked to below. Thanks Nic!
Author’s Comment: Hi Sab, thanks for the opportunity. The activities are from a set of age appropriate activities devised from the Montessori school program, it’s something the institution put together probably by observation. I guess the message is more about the activity itself, as it promotes self confidence and independence.
The activities don’t necessarily have to be mirrored, they can be adapted accordingly to what the child can handle, but it’s more about the participation which I think is important. I’ve featured all the age mind maps on the One Trillion Stories blog section.
I really do think there is benefit sitting down with your kid showing them the mind map structure and see if they can carry out the task, this way you promote the learning of mind maps and the importance of these types of activities! Thanks…
Web Addresses: One Trillion Stories ~ Biggerplate
(Click HERE for BIGGER version)
Mad Mapper’s Muse: This is EXACTLY what I love getting in my inbox direct from our fantastic, friendly mind mapping Facebook group! Karl was on a course earlier this month with me called Applied Innovation run by Chris Griffiths and the team at OpenGenius and boy did we learn some cool stuff during those four days. Now to put it into practice.
Karl is very active on the Belgiun mind mapping scene and I hope we get some synergy going in 2016, seeing as I’m just around the corner in Paris, France.
I love the way he’s played around with the branches to make them into the letters of Mappy New Year (you did see that, right?). Then he’s found some inspirational words to get us starting next year on the right foot, or branch perhaps.
Fantastic – keep ’em coming Karl, looking forward to your next creations!
Author’s Comment: It is a honor! First of all I found the word play “Mappy New Year” (probably it already exists 🙂 but I wanted to do something with that.
I love to play with the blue dots on the branches in iMindMap 9. It stimulates my creativity. That is the reason why I made this one, to have a creative hour (fighting with dots and branches).
As a ThinkBuzan Licensed Instructor (TLI), I am an ambassador of mind mapping in Belgium. Together with 2 other Flemish TLI’s (Ilse Bal & Marina De Roover) I started Belgium Is Mindmapping this summer (it is a Flemish website). We share experiences. Mindmapping helps me improve my creativity, self-management, project management, business development, …
As an official TLI trainer I focus on the use of mindmapping and iMindmap software in both professional and personal ways. Mindmapping as a tool, not a goal!
Web Addresses: Facebook Page ~ Quattro Development ~ BelgiumIsMindMapping
Mad Mapper’s Muse: I stumbled across this lovely colourful and positive mind map as I surfed around the internet, and let me just tell you: surfing for mind maps is one of the most dangerously time-consuming activities known to man, which is my excuse for this article being published nearly three months late, but anyway!
The delightfully named Thaneeya McArdle has not only produced a great map, but she also explains exactly how she did it on her Art Is Fun website.
Thaneeya is a really wonderful artist and it’s a pleasure to browse through her site to see some of her colourful designs and stunning pictures. Make sure to check out her photorealistic and composite realism work, as well as her abstract and whimsical stuff, her owls and of course her… sugar skulls!
If only, oh, if only I hadn’t gone down the ????? route – well, that’s what looking at a site like Thaneeya’s can get you thinking but you have to be happy with what you’ve got and what you’ve done I suppose otherwise you wont’ get anywhere, right?
Author’s Comment: Thinking about it…
Web Addresses: Art Is Fun ~ Thaneeya McArdle
Mad Mapper’s Muse: I got very excited when I discovered Marion’s amazing visual journey book on the French language, Le Français Vu Du Ciel, and I honoured one of her marvellous mind maps (although I could have given her 20 awards!) exactly a year ago back in 2016, check it out.
But I tend to forget that before her book, Marion was already a prolific mind mapper, using her artistic and imaginative talents to create standalone pieces on various topics to make others contemplate and weep!
Here I’m offering you one I found on her loaded Flickr account and I highly recommend you have a look, it’s a gold mine of inspiration and wonder.
As a life-long casual student of French, as well as an on-and-off English teacher passionate about languages, Marion’s Villes, Régions, Pays & Continents (Towns, Regions, Countries & Continents – my name, not hers) is a gem.
I like the fact that she hasn’t overdone it. Some folks try to cram the whole world into their maps and they end up being impressive but difficult to digest. Marion has given us just enough to get our teeth into without overwhelming us.
She doesn’t shy away from including explanatory tables or whole sentence examples and illustrates it in a simple and appropriate fashion.
This makes me, yet again, kick myself for not getting down to producing my own similar works on the English language. Her accomplishment bugs me but in and irritatingly positive way, if you see what I mean. It fires me up to want to do more good maps of my own, and that’s probably the biggest compliment I can giver her.
Author’s Comment: Thinking about it…
Web Addresses: Marion on Flickr – Territoire des Langues ~ LinkedIn ~ Facebook ~ Direct Link Here
Mad Mapper’s Muse: So actually I don’t know who did this, and that’s a shame, because mind maps are very personal and I like to acknowledge the original authors but so be it.
I chose this Spanish ‘physical description’ mind map because for one thing I’m still discovering where to find cool Spanish mind maps and this was one of the first I found and liked.
And for two things I thought its layout was extremely clear and nicely illustrated.
You couldn’t get much simpler in fact. There are only two main branches, for the verbs ‘be’ and ‘have’, more or less. The former leads off to adjectives such as ‘to be tall/short’ or ‘to be English/French’. The latter deals with less ‘permanent’ features or characteristics that can change, such as ‘to have glasses’ or ‘to have a beard’.
The pictures are really cute and very uniform and once again (see the French category on this page) it gets me itching to so some more creative English language learning mind maps of my own. Maybe this will be the year. Watch this web site!
Author’s Comment: Thinking about it…
Web Addresses: The ¡Animate! series ~ Some similiar sample maps ~ Direct Link Here
Mad Mapper’s Muse: In honour of the new year – 2017 no less, in case you hadn’t noticed – I’m delighted to present a major new map from enthusiastic US mapper George Huba, which I’m fondly entitling ‘Mind Model Mad’!
What’s more, I’m introducing a brand new Mappy Awards category, dedicated to mind maps about… wait for it… mind mapping, yes!
Why do I consider this map a particularly useful one? Well, because George highlights an important point which isn’t often explicitly stated: mind mapping software is by and large good enough now as far as reproducing the technique on a computer is concerned.
Which begs the question: so where do we go from here? And do we need to (go anywhere)? Maybe we can just stop playing around with silly little incremental improvements and simply focus on creating more and better mind maps. Sometimes (in my more cynical moments) I wonder about all these people who talk and compare and analyse and blah-blah about this or that regrettably missing feature or sub-optimal upgrade in whatever software it is they use without ever seeming to actually… make mind maps.
Of course, they probably do (create maps) and just don’t feel like sharing, or can’t because of confidentiality. However, I’d dearly like to see more maps being shared and discussed from a content point of view rather than a technical one.
It’s a bit like photography. You can talk about the technique of taking photos – aperture settings and shutter speed and ‘rules’ of composition and avoiding camera-shake and whatnot, or you can talk about how a particular photo makes you feel emotionally.
In the end I guess you can talk about how to construct mind maps, and in what situations to use them, AND of course discuss the content presented as a topic in its own right. I’d like to see a bit more of the latter, that all I’m saying!
So anyway, George takes things forward by looking at how we can evolve the use of mind maps to optimise learning and performance and better exploit the tool in our every day lives, a topic I know is close to ace Belgian educational mapper Philippe Packu‘s heart too, and mine! Nice one George ?
Author’s Comment: Thinking about it…
Web Addresses: Illumine Training ~ Biggerplate ~ Direct Link Here
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© 2016 Sab Will / Mind Map Mad
