Thing 19

I love finding the flowcharts and mind maps on the web. Both of the sites I explored were easy to use and access. The biggest plus being that I can get to them from any computer without purchasing expensive software. First I looked at Gliffy. It was very easy to use and figure out. I liked that the projects could be public or private, which allows for easier collaboration. I liked the floor plan feature. This is a TEK to explore in younger grades, but it has always been hard to have samples. This makes it easy for teacher or student created floor plans to be used. I also liked that images could be imported from the web for use in the flowcharts. There is a $20.00 a year fee to upgrade, which would be worth it if you planned to use the site often. It seemed as easy to use as Inspiration, but it has the added bonus of being accessible to students from any connected computer. I also explored Bubbl.us. I also found this to be an easy to use site. I liked the visual look of the site. It came to my mind that it might be good to use for my family charts in working on my family's genealogy. I also thought to use it for helping the fifth grade classes create timelines in Social Studies. It seems easy enough to use that the teachers would like it, and they are always looking for new products for the students.