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Inspiration Maps™

Mindprint Rating

Tags

ELA: Writing Study Skills & Tools ^Music, Art and Makerspaces MS/HS/College iOS App

Skills

Organization

Mindprint Expert Review

Pros

  • Students can use the built-in templates to help them get started based on the subject and topic.
  • Students can easily add in photos or icons to make their maps more memorable and understandable.

Considerations

  • Some students might find mind mapping visually overwhelming and hard to follow.
  • If not used efficiently, mind maps can use up more time than they save, especially if students are not comfortable with the tools.
  • This app requires a paid upgrade saving, storing, and sharing multiple maps and reusing templates.

Mindprint Expert Review

This is an excellent mind mapping tool that can enable students to effectively organize their thoughts for writing or manage large amounts of content to memorize for a test. Most students will need some guidance in how to most effectively use mind mapping tools, and adults will want to monitor to make sure the tool is helping a student's efficiency and not adding time. For students who like mind maps, this particular app is feature-rich with options to change fonts for emphasis, add personal photos, plenty of built-in icons to make the mind maps more interesting and memorable and helpful templates by subject in English (book comparison, essay outline, etc.), history (issue analysis, time period, etc.) and science (lab report diagram, classification, etc.). Students will need to upgrade to easily email their maps, create their own re-usable templates, and unlimited usage. Overall, mind maps, like visual note taking, can be a highly effective tool for organizing thoughts, which can help with both understanding and retention, and this app is a great option.

Academic Benefits

Improves academic skills

  • Provides sufficient and varied types of practice problems to maximize understanding and generalization of the targeted skill/concept
  • Manufacturer claims alignment with Common Core/Known Standards
  • Presents educational concepts accurately
  • Explains answers so students can learn from mistakes
  • Better for teaching the skill to new or struggling learners
  • Better for practicing or refreshing the skill
  • Skills are practiced through authentic, meaningful problems (not just rote practice)

Fun

Engaging for the Mindprint recommended age range

  • Appropriate for a broad age range to use and enjoy
  • Subject matter and problems are relevant, interesting and authentic to students
  • Visually appealing to children in the target age range
  • Provides virtual rewards or incentives after meeting specified goals or objectives
  • Provides a "break activity" between academic problem sets
  • Offers ongoing, progressive challenge
  • Overall - Enjoyable. Given the option, students would choose this option

Easy to Use

Understandable for children in the Mindprint recommended age range

  • Has a free or trial version
  • Provides teaching guidance for adults to support the child and set appropriate goals
  • Provides an age-appropriate tutorial/first time users can work independently
  • Student should be able to use independently after first use
  • Has a multi-player option to foster in-person collaboration or cooperation
  • Multiple users can save a profile
  • Student graduates to the next level or topic only after meeting a benchmark
  • Can play without sound and not distract others
  • Students can save work between sessions
  • Can effectively understand and monitor student's progress (email report or in product)
  • Provides options to play in languages other than English/Good for ELL
  • Presents information in multiple formats (voice over, pictures and text, etc.)
  • Overall - Easy to use

Cognitive Concerns

May not be advisable for students with the following cognitive needs

  • Attention
    • Promotes purchases or upgrades to students
    • Age inappropriate amount of work which could overwhelm or discourage students
    • Visually distracting with too many pictures, problems or moving objects
  • Fine Motor Skills
    • Requires challenging finger movements, motor precision or physical manipulation
  • Visual Discrimination
    • Requires scanning in multiple places for words, objects or numbers
    • Promotes purchases or upgrades to students
    • Words used during activity can be too small or difficult to read
    • Visually distracting with too many pictures, problems or moving objects
  • Working Memory
    • Requires scanning in multiple places for words, objects or numbers

Manufacturer Description

Welcome to Inspiration Maps™, the most intuitive and powerful visual learning app on the iPad. Build beautiful diagrams, graphic organizers and outlines with ease! Getting organized has never been this simple.

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What’s the difference between ‘INSPIRATION MAPS™’ and ‘INSPIRATION MAPS VPP’?

‘Inspiration Maps’ allows you to create up to five documents to test the functionality of the app for free before using in-app purchase to upgrade to full, unlimited function. ‘Inspiration Maps VPP’ gives you all the features available in the Inspiration Maps upgrade without having to use in-app purchase to access them. ‘Inspiration Maps VPP’ exists to simplify the process for educators purchasing through Apple’s Volume Purchase Program (VPP) for Education.
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With Inspiration Maps, you can...

BUILD DIAGRAMS & OTHER GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS WITH EASE
Create concept maps, cause and effect diagrams, process flows, family trees and more! Getting started couldn’t be easier: Simply double tap a blank space on your canvas to create a new idea symbol. Start from scratch or from one of the many built-in templates in language arts, history, science or thinking & planning!

BRAINSTORM IDEAS
Harness your own creativity - there’s nothing like using Inspiration Maps’ quick-brainstorming tool RapidFire(R) to capture your ideas as fast as they come to you. Never lose track of a great idea again!

GET ORGANIZED
Simply drag and drop to organize and categorize concepts and ideas. Establish connections with links and connecting phrases. Structure is automatically generated for you when you use Arrange or when you view your diagram as an outline.

STRENGTHEN UNDERSTANDING & BUILD RETENTION
Use proven visual thinking and learning techniques to brainstorm ideas, explore and explain relationships, and integrate new knowledge with what you already know. Inspiration Maps encourages deeper, more critical thinking and that improves creativity, comprehension and retention.

WRITE, TAKE NOTES & PLAN
Use visual diagrams or written outlines to take notes and add details. Inspiration Maps turns static outlines into dynamic, rich writing structures. Expand on your work in Diagram View or Outline View, then export to a writing app to complete your projects.

PERSONALIZE & BEAUTIFY
Your diagrams and outlines are entirely customizable - change background colors, line colors, link styles, fonts, and more! Add graphics from the built-in symbol library, the internet, or your own camera roll.

Features:
- 1500+ searchable graphic library
- Create unlimited diagrams & outlines*
- Record & attach audio
- Diagrams transform to outlines and back again
- Personalize with images, colors, shapes, arrow styles, and backgrounds
- Refine layout with align, nudge, spacing controls or auto-arrange
- Use images from the web or the iPad camera
- Attach notes to any item
- Add hyperlinks
- Diagrams save instantly
- Built-in templates supporting subjects across the curriculum
- Add written or audio instructions to any document
- Import & export documents between Inspiration Maps & Inspiration 9.2 for PC/Mac*
- Share files with other apps on your iPad*
- Share files with other iPads via Dropbox, AirDrop or iTunes*
- Additional templates available in French, Spanish & UK English
- Localized in French, Spanish & UK English

*Feature available upon purchase of Inspiration Maps VPP. In Inspiration Maps, features is available after using in-app purchase to upgrade to full function.
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VOLUME PURCHASE PROGRAM (VPP) FOR EDUCATION

To receive the discount available to buyers purchasing 20 apps or more through Apple’s Volume Purchase Program for Education, purchase ‘Inspiration Maps VPP’ (NOT ‘Inspiration Maps’).
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OTHERS ARE SAYING

“Easy and fun to use. Highly recommended for students and teachers.” - Toni Krasnic, edShelf

** 2013 CODiE Finalist ** **2012 Tech&Learning Award of Excellence Winner**