Brief Description- Mindmaps ( Link to check it out )
I feel a little silly that this is the teaching tool I selected, but during my placement I needed something like this when having students design a creature for our final assessment and didn't even think to look for it. I had students use a graphic organizer we made in our notebooks, but Mindmaps would have been a much better tool to use. The tool that I have selected for this post is called Mindmaps and it seems so simple compered to all of AI power houses that can basically run an entire class. This tool allows you to quickly and easily generate a map of your ideas or connections to a central topic, we have all created a mind maps but this tool lets you create it with ease and there is no need to worry about space constraints if you were using a board or on paper. Below is a screenshot of something I made in 4 minutes to illustrate how I would have liked to use it in my placement. There is very little barriers to use and there isn't a steep learning curve.
I believe this would have/will be a good teaching tool because it allows students to build and quickly see how ideas grow and and concepts can connect to each other. Mind maps are also just a great visual and exercise when trying to organize thoughts.
Versatility: There is limited use for this tool, but a hammer isn't always necessary either, does that make it a less important or useful? A tool is good when it accomplishes its intended purpose effectively and consistently, which Mindmaps does. This tool's intended purpose is for organization and collection of thoughts. This tool allows for students to further explore their thoughts and put it into a visual representation.
Likelihood of Use: I could see myself using this in several ways, the first being with the class and creating a mind map together on the main screen. There is a very real possibility of being able to keep up with students thoughts and presenting them in real time with this tool. I could also see myself creating a template with idea prompts and providing students with spaces to write their own information. I could see it being useful to make a visually appealing graphic organizer.
*I was also messing around with Imgur, which allows for meme creation. This can be cringey when teachers do it, but I also think its funny when students complain about memes and try not to laugh at them. These can be useful to spice up a presentation or when doing "Teach To" at the start of the year*
