A French Exception:
Mind-mapping in the cyberspatial
dimension
Katherine Watson, Coastline Distance Learning
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A French exception: Mind-mapping history
It’s older than you may think! Age depends upon definition:
• Porphyry’s “trees”
• Llull’s “discs”
• Novak’s “concept maps”
• Buzan’s “mind maps”
• Le Bihan’s “schémas heuristiques”
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A French exception: Mind-mapping in
diverse dimensions
• Common modern uses of mind-mapping à la
Tony Buzan
– Business plans
– Web designs and their purpose(s)
– Note-taking in class
– Meetings, discussions
– Quick, efficient information review
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A French exception: Mind-mapping
in a new dimension
• French ways of reasoning: Good for mind-
mapping!
– Vermicular v. top-down linear
– Multiple branches, transdisciplinarity
– Inviting to interrogation
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A French exception: Mind-mapping
General process: Physical manifestation of ideas—
Five Buzan “rules” for mind-mapping
• Start with blank piece of paper
• Lay paper landscape-style
• Start in the center, drawing an image of your own
choosing, representing your main idea/topic
• Think up key words related to central topic; write
these around the main topics; these are ―nodes‖
• Draw lines or arrows in color, showing
connections between ideas
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A French exception: Mind-mapping
• General process across cultures and
across disciplines: Two-dimensionalizing
the three-dimensional
– Imagine your idea three-dimensionally
– Imagine organically, adding new branches
– Follow cross-cultural design standards
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A French exception: Mind maps
• 7 cross-cultural design rules from L’Ecole française de l’heuristique:
– Paper layout: Blank, white paper in landscape format: Frédéric LeBihan,
of the EFH notes ―we take greater advantage of the breadth of the visual
field than of its height.‖
– Drawing/writing implements: Color is important; black pens or crayons are
ok, as long as enough color appears elsewhere.
– ―Core‖: Central idea in the middle of the paper, expressed in one word, if
possible. This is the theme, the ―trigger‖ to logical association
– ―Branches‖: Lines emanating from the core organically, ―inspired from
nature‖
– Words: Chosen for evocative tone; written clearly by hand, a single word
on a branch for simplicity and clarity, again serving as associative triggers
– Images: To be treated as pictograms, but may be photos; ―there is no
need to be an artist in all this; simplicity and evocativity are important‖.
– Color: Primary colors and black most apparent, though colors expressing
the mind-mapper’s emotional connection to the topic might act as memory
triggers; color helps readability, also stimulating the right cerebral
hemisphere in a logical map created by the left side of the brain.
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A French exception: Mind maps
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A French exception: Mind mapping
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A French exception: mind maps in
diverse disciplines
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Mind maps in the USA & Francophone
countries differ by design: First, USA…
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France:
créativité
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A French Exception: Mind maps across
disciplinary dimensions!
• French maps use harmonious colors, words
• French maps unite ideas
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Mind maps: Why and how?
• Use the logic of associations, not of time
• Use images for creative thinking and memory
• Use color,dimension
• Use synesthesia
• Provoke good
brainstorms
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