In recent months artificial intelligence and machine learning have been at the forefront of new tech news while other organizational and data collection software has received far less attention. Specifically, mind-mapping software has had a strong record in providing clear information needed for a variety of purposes—from compiling data necessary for making informed business decisions to facilitating collaborative projects which depend upon brainstorming and communication.
Many people are familiar with mind-mapping from the 2004 television show, The L Word, where the character of Alice creates a chart mapping her relationships to the romantic network extending from her. Today, mind-mapping software operates on a similar premise structurally and logically where words, when entered into a database, create a visual mapping of projects, concepts, and histories. Such apps facilitate an extensive network of concepts, facts and connections into a visual framework allowing users to see linkages more readily. With the readability of this information, creating coherent narratives and future projections is possible.
Still, as with any recent innovation today, new technology is often taken to the extreme where organization is not just something we do, it has now become a culture in and of itself as mind-mapping makes its way into all facets of our lives—from the boardroom to the classroom. There is even talk of “organizational culture” within product development as well as new technology used to facilitate project management communication in order to close productivity gaps. All this begs the question: Are we overdoing it when we take new software and explode it onto every facet of our lives? Or, is this how new software must be explored to reveal all possible caveats, weaknesses, strengths and unexplored uses?
Whenever I introduce a course the first day of classes, I not only go over the syllabus with my students, but I focus upon a central theme integral to learning, no matter the subject matter: everything is related. In this spirit, mind-mapping is a necessary tool to employ intellectually and such software can only be helpful to pedagogical ends. In order to learn and grow, we must see connections between concepts, historical acts, scientific innovations and culture so that we might make connections to better our societies as well as our physical and mental health. The connections we need to make between one historical travesty and another are fundamental to our growth as a society as much as the necessity to reach out to other cultures and understand that no, sandwiches are not an American invention and have been around in various forms for centuries: the taco, the Cornish pasty, the choripán, Masala toast, Hawawshi, or the delicious Shanghai breakfast wrap.
Mind-mapping helps to make connections clearer for those who might have a more visual, rather than literary, memory and is an ideal software for this day and age when pedagogy adapts to different types of learners. Proven useful for dyslexic students and those with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), mind-mapping tools have become a staple for researchers who need detailed insights as the software makes clear connections across reams of archived data. How did the Enlightenment influence the American Revolution which in turn influenced the French Revolution? Mind mapping brings to the immediate visual field a massive layout of complex to simple systems and connections.
In recent years we have witnessed the emergence of dozens of mind-mapping apps and websites. One such app, Hypernomicon, is a free, open-source software adaptable for both personal productivity as well as data compilation. It is also designed specifically for philosophers. One such open-source mapping tool used for managing complex information, XMind, organizes and brainstorms information presented through tree, logic or fishbone charts. Mindomo is a mind-mapping app that appeals to educators and students for how it lays out information and its ease of adding data to the software. Mind-mapping software mirrors this era’s need for organization and connectivity from education to the professional field. But how does this translate to our social habits?
Tony Buzan, a leading educational consultant, elaborated the mind map technique during the 1974 BBC TV series which he hosted, Use Your Head. What was then presented as a way of managing knowledge to improving memory recall has become integral to software design today by focusing upon negotiating hierarchies and information. How we think about knowledge is directly part of how we relate to each other in what Buzan had hoped would lead to the human ability to “think intelligently.”
The problem today when confronting how to think intelligently and the myriad ways we learn as individuals is that social norms are often at odds with new technology, or at the very least, society often lags behind these innovations. The challenge for our collective future is to work together in using this technology so that we can rise to the challenge of learning instead of feeling overwhelmed with all there is to learn.
