Mindblowing

App Title: MindBlowing

Grade Level: Elementary to College Level, students need to be able to know how to record their voices, make a video, and upload photos on the iPhone. It is in the context of a mindmap surrounding any topic or theme.  

Purpose: A A multimedia mobile mindmap

Program Functionality: B+ Students type in an idea or concept and gather information and thoughts related to this concept through self-made videos, audio recordings, and images. These are organized as a concept map with branches of information surrounding a theme. Once the concept map is finished it can be emailed to the instructor or others. Students should be able to add text but this doesn't appear to work correctly.

Overall Educational Value: B+  Fun, engaging, and helps students to do research, take notes, or brainstorm in an interactive way.  

Cost: Free!

Recommendation: Would love for the text function to work and for this app to allow sharing on various platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and more. The option to embed the mindmap would also be amazing. This app would receive an A if there was an option to label the various images, videos, and audio uploads. Moreover, I would like to be able to upload previous recorded audio and videos like I can with the images. The app makes you create a new video or audio. Without the labeling the e-mail becomes a mess to figure out since you only receive a picture of the mindmap with attachments.

Classroom Use Examples / Ideas: One of the great advantages of this app is that students can use this without being connected to wifi. Younger students and language learners can go on scavenger hunts related to a theme and collect information related to the topic by taking pictures, recording short videos, and conducting interviews. Students could also record observations or take class notes with this app. Students could collect research for a blog post or brainstorm for a paper. Students can easily record thoughts versus writing them down. Students can email the mindmaps to each other and compare. Students could also collect information and send the mindmaps to another student to guess the theme, character, or topic. Teachers could use this app to take multimedia notes at a conference or workshop.

Developer Website: http://sites.google.com/site/mindblowingcuhk/

iTunes Link: http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/mindblowing/id369070873?mt=8

Reviewer Name: Shelly Terrell

Reviewer Blog: http://teacherbootcamp.edublogs.org/

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Simple Mind Express - mindmapping - Show #34

Grade Level: Late Elementary

Program Functionality: B / Pretty easy to use but the export to their website didn't work. You can take a screen shot but it doesn't take the entire map as your map might be bigger than the screen.

Purpose: B / Exporting is an issue but we can see some interesting potential with this application.

Overall Educational Value: C / This can have some nice value in a classroom if it gets improved.

Cost: $ Free

Recommendation: We are recommending this app for personal use and within a school setting at this time. Hopefully they can fix the bugs and get this app to be more functional.

Creators Website: http://www.simpleapps.eu/simplemind

ITunes Link: Click Here

Hey, check out our Ning (Online Community) devoted to helping teachers utilize these devices to the their fullest.