Mindmapping tool

As you work through your e-plan you may want to mindmap some of your ideas to assist with the layout or design. There is nothing worse than starting the site and changing your mind half way through or forgetting to insert a page!

Ann likes mindmapping as a technique as it is essentially creating a storyboard where I create connectors that will become my pages or external links.

Michael has been using the free tool called FreeMind Portable. This is a mindmapping tool that allows you to effectively brainstorm your ideas, linking your thoughts and expanding on your ideas. It runs on any system that has java installed (a web plugin) - mac, windows or linux.

Example mindmap from the induction day:

Relevant links:

• Freemind web site.
• Download files page (freemind).
• Links to a portable version of freemind, for your usb stick (windows only, depends on java).

Other links (enthusiasts only):

• Lifehacker gives their top 5 mind-mappers (not all free). 
• Here are michael's "Diigo bookmarks" on the topic.
• ..and wikipedia has dozens more.

Next steps for the North-West

Wonderful. Thanks to all the NW e-learning leaders for keying in your availability for the site visits and the regular online drop-in sessions. You'll see from the calendar page that almost everyone has organised a time for their site visit now. Please be in touch if the offered times don't suit at all.

We've also decided to set up a regular online drop-in session. This can be loosely structured, depending on the needs of the people who make it along. From people's input, we've decided to go with 3pm on a Friday, starting on 21 October. We did think about a Thursday evening, but there's another terrific series of workshops on e-learning at that time, run by a group called the Australia e-series.

(more after the break)

Calendar for e-mentor projects

Here are the upcoming events for the ACFE LearnLocal e-mentor projects. We've also made a page with this calendar, so don't worry when it scrolls out of view. Look to the list of pages instead (here it is). Let us know if you'd like to subscribe to the calendar, and we'll show you how.

North-West: the overview

Here is the presentation we used in the "induction sessions" in late September. You'll see your own words and comments in several slides. We're aiming to continue adding examples of good e-learning practise as we go. [Look for the fullscreen button for viewing.]