Useful Revision/Planning Tool
I’ve spent some time over the last couple of days playing around with a mindmapping tool called Freemind. I’m very much a visual learner and for me the easiest way to understand or plan something is to draw a diagram.
So how on earth is this relevant to Sociology? Well, mindmapping is often a very useful way of gathering ideas, constructing essay plans and revising topics. On paper it tends to get a bit messy, but on a computer you end up with something that you can change as much as you like. As a teacher I often get my students to construct mind maps of topics or even whole units so that they can see how the bits fit together - with a subject as complex as Sociology it is often the only way to illustrate the links between ideas.
To illustrate, here is an image of a mind map that I’ve constructed using Freemind to help me plan out the writing I’m currently doing on Home Education:
I have to say I’m very impressed with Freemind - it’s easy to use and best of all it’s free. It is a piece of opensource software so it is free for any individual or organisation to download and use. One tip is that once you’ve got it open, if you select the Modes menu and click on Browse you get a mindmap help guide which is very useful.