Last week I shared a presentation about mind maps, timelines, and collaborative brainstorming. Shortly after sharing that presentation I learned about Coggle. Coggle is a new, collaborative mind-mapping service that is very easy to use.

To create a Coggle mind map just sign-in with your Google account and click the “+” icon to start your mind map. After entering the main idea of your mind map you can add branches by clicking the “+” icons that appear next to everything you type. To re-arrange elements just click on them and drag them around your screen.

Coggle is a collaborative tool. You can invite others to view and edit your mind maps. You can also just invite others to view by sending them an email through Coggle. All Coggle mind maps can be downloaded as PDFs or PNG image files.

Applications for Education
The problem with some mind-mapping tools is that while robust in features they don’t have intuitive interfaces which in turn causes students to struggle with the process and lose the flow of the brainstorming process. In contrast to that Coggle doesn’t have a robust set of features, but it does have a very intuitive user interface so that your students can focus on recording your ideas and not struggle with the formatting of their mind maps.