We’re half-way through 2013. Like I’ve done in years past, this week I’ll be featuring some of the best new tech tools of 2013 as well as some of the most popular posts of the year.

Coggle is a 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.