Page 6 - Writing Moves Digital Toolbox

Digital You can see the multiple
Toolbox
Section 1 directions your ideas can

link take, with one building

off of another in this idea

map for a literacy narrative

that allows the writer to

gather ideas about what to

include in the narrative and

to begin to consider the

connections among the

points being made (Figure

IV.1.5). Figure IV.1.5: A more developed Coggle map

While you could easily do

this kind of thinking on paper, Coggle also allows you to share your map with others and invite them to

view and edit, and you can save the images you create to return to later.

Coggle is accessed with a Google account and can be used from any device. Maps reside in the cloud
and can be shared or downloaded. Coggle offers a limited free version, as well as a paid version, and it
is supported by some universities. While its use is pretty intuitive, you’ll find a helpful video at https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=99VswRkMyW4.

• MindMup

MindMup (mindmup.com) is another tool that is popular in both education and business, where it’s
often used for project management. It offers unlimited free maps, with cloud storage and easy sharing
and downloading. Unlike Coggle, it lets you use not only text, but also images and icons. It, too, allows
collaborative editing through Google Drive. And it has a storyboard feature, letting you turn a map into a
sequence of slides. There’s a useful video about using MindMup on the home page.

For tablets, Momomo is a popular Android mind-mapping app, and Popplet and Idea Sketch are often
used on iPads.

• Drawing and Sketching Programs/Apps

While these are not mind-mapping tools, they can serve a similar purpose. You can use SmartArt Graphics
in Microsoft Word to create visual images of relationships among your ideas or draw them more flexibly
in a blank document. Sketch Pad is a free and popular drawing app for iOS operating systems; Sketch Kit
offers a similar option for Android. While these offer more flexibility than mind maps, the structure of
dedicated mapping tools makes them easier to use, especially for beginning mind mappers. You might
also try iBrainstorm, a free brainstorming application for the iPad and the iPhone that uses a combination
of freehand drawings and sticky notes.

Using Timeline Creators

Placing events on a timeline can help you see the relationship of a series of events and where you might
want to focus your attention, whether it’s a series of personal moments in your literacy experience that might
contribute to a literacy narrative or a series of research moments in a scientific discovery, like the discovery
of HeLa cells. Placing events on a timeline can be useful to learning in many areas, and it can give you an
effective graphic image to show the timing of the events you will write about.