jalt25

AKITA JALT meetings in 2004
picture album page 1 of 2004

February

Dave Ragan and his work on the board: Mind Map on music

The guest speaker led the participants through mind stimulating physical exercises before workshop.

The room is decorated with colorful posters all over the walls.

Guest speaker: Dave Ragan
Date: Saturday, February 28th (2004)
Title: Learning Maps

13 people attended the meeting.

Chapter Report
(to be printed in The Language Teacher)
Akita: February
Learning Maps
By Dave Ragan

This was a workshop run by Professor Dave Ragan of the new Akita International University. In this workshop we learned the basic rules of creating Learning Maps, also known as mind maps. The room was decorated with colorful posters with such admonitions as "Just do it"; "Your Brain is Like a Sleeping Giant"; "Remember Perfectly"; "To Win Begin Within". As a warm-up the participants stood and Prof. Ragan led them through mind stimulating physical exercises. Mind Maps were invented in the 1960s by Tony Buzan, who has written extensively on the subject. The branching image of a neuron and the branchings of a mind map are similar. Professor Ragan then led the audience through the making of a mind map based on music. Mind Maps always start in the center and radiate outwards, with each main branch being drawn in a different color. Instead of the traditional, linier note taking and outlining, mind maps take a holistic approach. After being taught the fundamentals each group was encouraged to make their own mind maps, while classical music played in the background. The workshop ended with a discussion of Parento's Law: "80% of results come from 20% of your efforts." Mind Maps are equivalent to that magic 20%.

Reported by Stephen Shucart

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