OpenMind and it’s use in the Educational Setting

Judy has asked me to write an update, so here goes!

My Year 8 class has now had two lessons in the ICT room. They were introduced to OpenMind in the first lesson, and were given a print out off an OpenMind map that they could use as a template – I didn’t have time to save one on the school’s VLE (or whatever you can call the Topics folder!) earlier for them. Some copied it almost word for word to begin with, others were more imaginative from the word go. Very quickly, they were adding smileys and changing the colour and style of the branches. Some began populating the map during that first lesson.

In the second lesson, most pupils began to use Google to find the answers to the questions they had put on their maps. I showed a few students how to add comments, and they were able to show their friends. Unfortunately I hadn’t taken taken my memory stick with me, so I wasn’t able to save any of their maps – I will try and remember to do that next lesson!

My Year 7s had a late start to the lesson because of a double booking in our original ICT room, so they were high as kites by the time we got into the room! However, we eventually got logged on, and again, some pupils got off the ground really quickly, while others took longer. A couple of pupils who are really quiet during lessons really shone, which was great. I think they appreciated having the chance to sit and quietly get on with some work by themselves without being distracted by the others.

One or two were asking if they could get straight on to the Powerpoint presentation, but I explained that their presentation would be much better if they planned it first, and that OpenMind was helping them to order their thoughts, and they seemed quite happy.

I will try and save some maps next time to share, and will let you know how the next lesson goes. I am interested in the transition from OpenMind to spresent …