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The idea of making a mapa conceptual It takes us all back to those primary and secondary teachers who simplified the whole subject by creating clouds full of information, but the truth is that, now that we are more grown up, we can see that it is a great tool to synthesize information and explain a topic, so it is a good idea for us to know platforms to do conceptual maps.
If you're wondering how this relates to the American Psychological Association (APA) Document Writing and Presentation Guidelines, you should know that concept maps are an excellent tool for bringing information-packed topics to life. After all, it is proven that some people are more visual than others and that visual communication is six times more effective than oral; while some understand a compilation of information in letters, others need a tool that "enters through the eyes" to understand what a particular topic is about.
In addition, it is a super attractive tool for your degree work, dissertation or scientific article to have a more attractive appearance, of course, without abusing images, because we want to have a thesis with a professional format. Remember, we are not making a photo album.
First things first: what are concept maps?
Yes, you have to start at the beginning. We talked about concept maps. This super tool was devised by Joseph D. Novak, an American professor emeritus at Cornell University and a renowned research scientist who also worked at the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition. Novak made a name for himself in the 1970s for creating concept map theory, and a decade later he became a Spanish citizen.
Novak's theory spoke of the organization in a mix of schematics and concept graphs that were related to each other. Its connection was much more direct thanks to the use of propositions, considered as a link between one data and another.
The innovative idea became popular very soon, as it helps to understand the information by giving it a touch of simplicity. Immediately, an extremely complicated subject was “simple”, since it could be described in small clouds full of knowledge. Furthermore, he went from the broad to the minimal, unraveling a big idea and turning it into mere words.
Platforms to make concept maps
Although you could generate your concept map from scratch, we know that there are several factors that could get in the way of it. In addition, we are facing a technological era, marked by speed and almost artificial intelligence, which can generate a conceptual map with the sole input of specific terms.
It's important to know that while these tools make the job easier, they don't do it all for you. You must have full understanding and knowledge of what is in that conceptual map to be able to notice any errors (technology always gives rise to them), and also, your second job is to explain what we are seeing in the graph generated by the application.
Knowing that, we open your mind to a world of possibilities, introducing you to those super tools that are ideal for creating concept maps.
1. Lucidchart
Considered as one of the best and most complete platforms to make concept maps in the entire network, Lucidchart is worth one friendly and simple platform to design diagrams and conceptual maps. Your work will be limited to choosing the figures that will make up the diagram and its style.
One of the most interesting and attractive points of Lucidchart is that it allows you create your own template library, because while other platforms force you to stick to pre-established formats, this one allows you to mold templates according to your needs.
As if that were not enough, it allows third parties to contribute ideas, since you can share your work in real time and, people with more knowledge or a broader vision of the spectrum, can give that touch that your work needs.
2. Coggle
One of the biggest advantages of Coggle is that it allows several people to work at the same time on the realization of a conceptual map. Gone is the saying that "only one person does the work", here you can work in a group, each one contributing their own. The tool is free, although limited, and totally free for those who access the paid version.
3. Miro
It has a remarkable group of preset platforms that you can modify as you write. In these times of pandemic, teachers and professors have used it a lot because it allows online collaboration to be very simple. It will allow you to organize information and plan ideas.
4. Text 2 Mind Map
It is a free application that structures by itself the information that you "drop" into it. Your job is to give her the concepts: she will do the rest.
5. XMind
Also known to help generate mental maps, XMind It allows you to share the maps, print them and generate them in various formats. It focuses on collaboration and teamwork, so everyone involved in the investigation can leave a little bit of themselves in the image.
6. SmartDraw
SmartDraw adapts to the needs of the user. The simplest or the most complex concept maps can come from here; it all depends on the topic.
After entering the information you want to be part of the map, your job is to choose its order of appearance. The program will take care of aligning components and connectors giving you the opportunity to edit them, clearly, although you probably won't because the instant results are amazing.
It offers a friendly and simple to use platform and contains a large set of pre-built templates that you can play with.
7. Canva
Hated by true designers and loved by beginners, Although it has its trick, finding free access images is easy. Many of them are in the galleries of some programs. For example, all those that are part of the package It is an online platform that also works as an application and is completely free, although it has certain restrictions that you can access by making a payment.
It consists of a huge compilation of editable images that has close to 200 templates to achieve a concept map, although you can also generate it from scratch using all the images it offers you to do so.
It is that Canva contains an extensive gallery of images, shapes, illustrations, texts and others, which will help you give color and meaning to your concept map. In addition, it also allows you to work as a team when creating it.