Part 1: Bubbl.us

bubbl.us – free web application for brainstorming online via kwout

This is part one of 3 articles based around online mind-mapping applications. These 3 articles will end with me giving my pick for the one I like best and why.

Part 1: Bubbl.us

This mind mapping application is the probably the easiest to use and to enable the collaborative aspect right away. All you need to do is sign up and make friends with a colleague or student that has an account with Bubbl.us and give them editing access. Of course you can also only give them viewing access in case you don’t want them to muck about in your hard work

It works very much like any other mind mapping application but doesn’t have the functionality of putting links, documents or other items like that into any of the bubbles but that is the charm in my mind the utmost of simplicity.

Bubble.us has very much a web 2.0 look with glossy bubbles that contain your content.The creation of the whole map doesn’t even require using the mouse very much as all the functions for creating new bubbles can be done with the keyboard.

It also has the functionality of being able to export to an HTML page, embed directly in a website or print to an image.

All in all Bubbl.us is the tool that I tend to use the most because of its ease of use, collaborative aspects, control over group access, and the export functionality.

How can Bubbl.us be used in education?

Stay tuned to the 3rd part of my article trilogy to see how Mind mapping in general can be used in education.