Peer Review

Inspiration Maps App for iPad

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Reviewed:: Mar 31, 2014 by Teacher Education

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Ratings

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Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

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Overview:: Inspiration Maps is the iOS tablet version of the popular mind mapping tool (Inspiration) that is used in many schools. Students can build visual representations of their knowledge on various topics. These mind maps can be used to reflect on learning, write papers or study for exams.
Type of Material:: Inspiration Maps is a iOS app specifically designed for the iPad.
Recommended Uses:: •The applications of mind maps to enhance teaching are infinite. For example, mind maps may be used to help students gain a different perspective about issues; thereby ,supporting cultural responsive practices; present new concepts, asses prior knowledge about content or topic; increase critical thinking and problem solving skills, promote collaboration and team work; informal assessment and retention of content, knowledge or skills; increase online learning and active participation; differentiate instruction through process or product; brainstorm ideas ;and establish the relationship between concepts. Also,, mind maps may be used to demonstrate the connections between cause and effect.
Technical Requirements:: Inspiration Maps requires iOS 6.0 or later on an iPad.
Identify Major Learning Goals:: The learning goals will be determined by the teacher or learner using this app.
Target Student Population:: Examples of target populations and subject matter include, K-12 teachers in any core content area, especially English /Language Arts, and Social Studies , 21st Century learning tools, academic support services, technical colleges for selecting and using tools to support learning, Undergraduate and Graduate college levels, and Faculty Development
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:: Users should have general knowledge of how to use an iPad along with basic skills for editing graphics on a computer (e.g. how to resize an image).

Content Quality

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Strengths:: Inspiration Maps comes with over 30 templates and 1,500 graphic symbols, all designed for the education community. For example, teachers can ask students to use the KWHL template to plan learning around a new topic. The template diagram allows students to organize their thoughts about what they know, what they want to know, how they will learn it, and what they learned.
Concerns:: Some of the symbol graphics appear to have a dated design which may make mind maps look as if they were created using outdated clip art.

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

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Strengths:: With over 30 templates on subjects such as English, History, and Science, students can quickly represent their knowledge on a topic, which then can be used for further reflection, writing a paper, or taking an exam. Teachers can create their own documents that can be used as templates by uploading them to a shared Dropbox folder that students can access. Completed mindmaps can be converted to outlines and then sent to a word processing program (e.g. Pages) to complete a writing assignment.
Concerns:: None.

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

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Strengths:: The provided templates allow students to use Inspiration Maps without having to understand how to build a high quality mind map. Student can replace the text in each bubble with their own thoughts to complete a mind mapping assignment. There are over 30 templates to choose from and a teacher can create her own documents that can be used as templates and shared with students through Dropbox.
Concerns:: Creating a high quality mind map takes time and requires a fair amount of training before all students can be expected to work independently in Inspiration Maps.

Other Issues and Comments:: The price of $9.99 probably means that many teachers will not consider this app when looking for mind mapping apps. This is a shame because Inspiration Maps is clearly better than its free competitors. While there is a free version called Inspiration Maps Lite, students are only able to save five maps with it before being asked to upgrade to the full version. Inspiration is a strong supporter of education and will work with schools on group pricing when asked.
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