Mindmapping

[sieglinde]

Anyone know about any of these Free products?

Freemind: freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
Compendium: compendium.open.ac.uk/institute/ (which appears to be associated with the Open University?)
XMind:
www.xmind.net/ (Free and subscription upgrade to pro)

The last I felt very suspicious about because free then upgrade has come to mean apps that won't function properly when free - or do adverts pop up? Ed Psych advised mindmapping for dyspraxic DS. He says he hates the school programme....

All advice gratefully received...

The first two are likely to be free with no strings.

SourceForge projects are open source (often for Linux) but there will usually be source code and a large number of critical eyes will have checked the code against malware / snooping etc.

As you indicate, second site is Open University. Any .ac.uk domain is higher education in the UK.

I've used Freemind quite a lot.
How old is DS? My year 6 pupils can use it, but it isn't terribly intuitive.

The best one I've used for children that age was Inspiration which costs about £60 (although that might be the one he hates)

Great name, Ilsa - but he's 16, and so yes, Inspiration is the one he hates; his school has it even though it's a secondary and Inspiration is kinda for the young. He likes the none-too-cheap MindGenius. However, many thanks for this.

Sorry I can't be of more help. I think the prblem with Inspiration is they also do MindMapping software called Kidspiration which is aimed at the Primary School Sector - (Inspiration for Secondary) however I found Kidspiration far too simplistic and use Inspiration with pupils from Year 2 onwards - I can understand why a 16 year old would prefer something else.

Well, thanks, though. I think we will have to fork out 70 quid for Mid Genius, as ds won't use what he doesn't like - being a 16-year-old with dyspraxia...

I also get cranky about the way schools won't let kids even with statements who will therefor be using a laptop for exams use this stuff for notetaking in class - THEY the teachers get to do it, but the kids still have to use grubby homework diaries and ripped notebooks... Of course some kids probably keep theirs pristine, but not ds. :)