I use mind mapping quite frequently with students when I’m teaching them to think about search strategies so I was keen to hear what Virpi and Jouni had to say about their course involving mapping tools and information retrieval. Based at TKK, the leading technology university in Finland, the course is for teaching staff, to enable them to use these methods in their own teaching and Virpi explained that all the staff have found it helpful. I also hadn’t realised the differences between mind, concept and dialogue maps, but was pleased to find that they use the same mind mapping software as I do (Freemind). Jouni explained that concept maps (software CMap Tools) are good for defining terms and creating relationships, while dialogue maps (software Compendium) are about questions, answers and reasons. It makes sense when you see their examples.

Jouni Nevalainen and Virpi Palmgren (hotel pool and Molyvos in background)