Exploratree

Exploratree is a great site for educators to use for creating mind maps or brainstorming. This is an easy site to use that allows for group collaboration and comments as well. Best of all, Exploratree has a number of different templates to choose from to find the right "mind map" for you.

I highly recommend checking out Exploratree by clicking here!!

Click here to see my top 10 sites for creating outlines.

Thanks to Richard Byrne's blog for the tip!!

Top 10 Sites for Creating Outlines

"An outline is a list^[1] of the main features of a given topic, often used as a rough draft or summary of the content of a document.^[2] Ahierarchical outline is a list arranged to show hierarchical relationships, and is a type of tree structure. (wikipedia)" Outlines are used all the time in education and everyday use to organize content and show relationships among items. While creating an outline is nothing new there are websites dedicated to increasing this skill and taking it to the next level.

Top 10 Sites for Creating Outlines

1. Webspiration Classroom - From the creators of Inspiration, a wonderful graphic organizer that now allows for online collaboration and one of the best visual outline creators on the web.
2. Quicklyst - A free user friendly site for creating outlines. Quicklist also integrates w/ a search engine and dictionary for enhanced note taking. Study queues can be made as well.
3. Knowcase - Create collaborative outlines w/ this easy to use site that features a drag-n-drop interface.
4. Thinklinkr - A real time collaborative outline creator that has a nice built in chat feature to engage in project development.
5. Checkvist - A great collaborative online outliner that has an abundance of features such as: gmail/browser integration, mobility, and nice import/export features.
6. CRLS Outline Maker - A very easy to user outline creator that takes you through a step by step process.
7. Read Write & Think Outline Maker - A very easy to user outline creator that teaches how to create outlines.
8. Loose Stitch - A nice fun site for creating collaborative outlines that can the be exported to a blog or website.
9. Wisemapping - More of a mindmapper then pure outline creator but still a great visual site that teaches the basic concepts of creating an outline.
10. Mindmeister - A fun site for realtime collaboration that is ideal for creating brainstorms, mind maps, and outlines.

Quicklyst

Quicklyst is a site I just found out about from Richard Byrne's award winning blog, Free Technology 4 Teachers. This is a site that is designed to help users take notes and create outlines w/ a easy user interface. Also, there are some nice features for searching w/in notes and the built-in reference guide for terms.

I recommend checking out Quicklyst by clicking here!!

Knowcase

Knowcase is a fun site for creating collaborative outlines. While I do like this site, I would enjoy it even more if it had more features such as adding photos or the ability to turn your outline into a diagram. That being said Knowcase is really nice when wanting to share w/ others and have them edit your outline.

Give Knowcase a try by clicking here!!



For a more detailed review check out Free Technology 4 Teachers!!

Thinklinkr

Thinklinkr is a site I just learned about from Richard Byrne's amazing blog. TL is a site for making online/collaborative outlines. This is classic web 2.0.

What makes Thinklinkr such a great site is how easy it is to use and the great features that come along w/ it, such as: revision history (go back to a previous version), chatting, real-time, etc etc. What I'm really curious about is if this is compatible Inspiration which happens to be one of the popular educational outline creators.

The only thing I can hope for now is some type of educational portal/package where teachers can create user accounts for their students and monitor their activity. If this happens, I see this as being a potential gold mine for educators alike.

I highly recommend checking out the demo video below...

Give Thinklinkr a try by clicking here.