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A French Exception:

Mind-mapping in the cyberspatial dimension

Katherine Watson, Coastline Distance Learning1

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A French exception: Mind-mapping historyIt’s older than you may think! Age depends upon definition:

• Porphyry’s “trees”• Llull’s “discs”• Novak’s “concept maps”• Buzan’s “mind maps”• Le Bihan’s “schémas heuristiques”

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A French exception: Mind-mapping in diverse dimensions

• Common modern uses of mind-mapping à la Tony Buzan– Business plans– Web designs and their purpose(s)– Note-taking in class– Meetings, discussions– Quick, efficient information review

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A French exception: Mind-mapping in a new dimension

• French ways of reasoning: Good for mind-mapping!– Vermicular v. top-down linear– Multiple branches, transdisciplinarity– Inviting to interrogation

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A French exception: Mind-mapping General process: Physical manifestation of ideas—

Five Buzan “rules” for mind-mapping

• Start with blank piece of paper• Lay paper landscape-style• Start in the center, drawing an image of your own

choosing, representing your main idea/topic• Think up key words related to central topic; write

these around the main topics; these are “nodes”• Draw lines or arrows in color, showing

connections between ideas

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A French exception: Mind-mapping

• General process across cultures and across disciplines: Two-dimensionalizing the three-dimensional– Imagine your idea three-dimensionally– Imagine organically, adding new branches– Follow cross-cultural design standards

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A French exception: Mind maps • 7 cross-cultural design rules from L’Ecole française de l’heuristique:

– Paper layout: Blank, white paper in landscape format: Frédéric LeBihan, of the EFH notes “we take greater advantage of the breadth of the visual field than of its height.”

– Drawing/writing implements: Color is important; black pens or crayons are ok, as long as enough color appears elsewhere.

– “Core”: Central idea in the middle of the paper, expressed in one word, if possible. This is the theme, the “trigger” to logical association

– “Branches”: Lines emanating from the core organically, “inspired from nature”

– Words: Chosen for evocative tone; written clearly by hand, a single word on a branch for simplicity and clarity, again serving as associative triggers

– Images: To be treated as pictograms, but may be photos; “there is no need to be an artist in all this; simplicity and evocativity are important”.

– Color: Primary colors and black most apparent, though colors expressing the mind-mapper’s emotional connection to the topic might act as memory triggers; color helps readability, also stimulating the right cerebral hemisphere in a logical map created by the left side of the brain.

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A French exception: Mind maps

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A French exception: Mind mapping

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A French exception: mind maps in diverse disciplines

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Mind maps in the USA & Francophone countries differ by design: First, USA…

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France:

créativité

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A French Exception: Mind maps across disciplinary dimensions!

• French maps use harmonious colors, words• French maps unite ideas

Mind maps: Why and how? • Use the logic of associations, not of time• Use images for creative thinking and memory • Use color,dimension• Use synesthesia• Provoke goodbrainstorms

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