Mind Maps – “A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste” | ExamTime
http://examtime.com/exam-tips/mind-maps-a-mind-is-a-terrible-thing-to-waste/

A Mind Map is basically another way of displaying information to help you remember the important points of a subject or module. Exams are one of the biggest pressures students face and anything that can help you in your quest for the best results can only be a positive thing.

As the academic year may start at various different times for all over you over the coming weeks, perhaps this would be a good time to evaluate how successful your revision methods have been in 2011.

This article caught my eye, as many learners don’t believe Mind Maps can be used for higher education.

Mind Maps can be used at the highest levels. So start with your summaries and progressively increase the amount of detail on your Mind Maps.

You can also continuously work on your learning process. Like any professional athlete, you need to work on, and tweak, your skills all the time so that your mind can continue to expand your mind.

You can learn faster and easier by maximizing the power of your mind with Mind Maps and improving your learning process.

http://www.usingmindmaps.com/learning-management-program.html

Initiating Inquiry: Mindmapping and Fishbowl Discussions for Connecting and Building Background Knowledge
http://alalearning.org/2012/01/23/initiating-inquiry-mindmapping-and-fishbowl-discussions-for-connecting-and-building-background-knowledge/

Susan Lester’s 10th Honors World Literature/Composition students recently began a novel study of All Quiet on the Western Front.    Since students knew little about World War I, we gave students the opportunity to choose a World War I topic of interest to them ( a menu was provided but students could come up with their own topics, too) to research.  Susan and I decided to help students dwell in the connecting stage of inquiry by having students mindmap their research and then share those findings in a Fishbowl discussion group.  Using mindmaps that Howard Rheingold’s students created and published as our models, we gave students the choice for the tools and mediums they wanted to use to mindmap the key ideas and findings of their research on their topic.  Most preferred creating their mindmaps with concrete materials like paper and ink, but others like using Word or Bubbl.us.

I found this case study extremely informative on using Mind Maps to learn. Pay particular attention to the discussion groups, the reasons why the Mind Maps did not work so wel,l and the actions taken to rectify the situation.

(Effective) reading to increase your English vocabulary
http://speakspeak.com/learning-tips/reading-to-increase-your-english-vocabulary

Reading in English is a great way for learners to improve their vocabulary. By reading we can learn new words, and we can immediately see these new words in their correct context. We can also consolidate vocabulary that we have learned in the past.

Many learners, though, approach reading in English in the wrong way. If your method is bad, reading in a foreign language can be hard and boring. And if a subject doesn’t interest you, you will learn very little.

Here are six simple tips to help make your reading both enjoyable and effective.

Some great tips to improve your English vocabulary, if you are learning English as a foreign language.

You can use this with our English Grammar Mind Map Tutor (http://www.usingmindmaps.com/english-grammar-mind-map-tutor.html) to learn English more effectively.

By using different methods, you naturally use your brain more effectively and increase your chances of learning English faster and easier.