Thing 14 - Flowcharts and Mind Maps

I have to admit that I am not the biggest fan of mapping out my ideas in the form of a flowchart or a mind map. I'm not entirely sure why that's the case, but I imagine it has to do with hating to have to do similar tasks in school and this dislike has carried over into my adult years. Anyway, I attempted to put aside my dislike for such things and give a couple of these websites a try.

While making my mind map, I found the bubbl.us site to be easy to use. While on there I created a little map that shows some of the different disciplines that one could take an interest in by using math. It was very simple to export my creation once I was finished and then add it to this blog right here.

In order to make a flowchart, I decided to use Gliffy. Gliffy had a lot more user options that bubbl.us did, which made it slightly more difficult to learn at first, but it also allows for the creation of a neater, more professional chart. While on Gliffy I decided to make a flowchart for the different outcomes that can happen to a batter in a baseball game. I spent a few minutes creating it, and once I was finished I found out that I could not save it unless I signed up for a 30 day free trial. Perhaps I could have just signed up, saved my work and then immediately cancelled my account, but I figured it wasn't worth whatever minute risk there was that I would be unable to cancel and I would be stuck with a perpetual bill I would never be able to end. Chance of happening? Probably really really close to 0. However, I figured it was just easier to mention that I made a flowchart and then slightly complain about the whole 30 day trial thing. Just take my word for it that it was the best flowchart I've ever made.

While exploring the sites it appears that flowcharts allow for greater organization than mind maps. Mind maps seem like they would be useful when trying to find relationships between ideas, or when trying to break down a big idea into several smaller ones. Flowcharts, on the other hand, allow the creator to show a linear progression of events and thoughts. It seems to me that mind maps may be more appropriate for initial brainstorming activities, while the flowchart would see its best use during the outline creation phase of a project or paper.