[X-Newbies] Mind Mapping

[Tony Johansen]

On 9/10/2005 5:07 AM, "Kirk McElhearn" <kirklists at wanadoo.fr> wrote:

> 
> On Oct 8, 2005, at 8:22 PM, Tony Johansen wrote:
> 
>> and can do everything Inspiration does plus more without the
>> annoying 'dumbed down for kids' delivery.
> 
> Sorry, but you still don't get it - there are two versions of
> Inspiration - one for kids and one for adults...

Kirk,

I did understand, and I am glad that Inspiration works for you, but my inner
city sans children lifestyle probably influences things here.
 
I have spent quite a lot of time on their website. There is a version for
very young children called Kidspiration and one for older children + adults.
The website, however principally talks about children and adult educators
working with children. Their whole focus is education and student based even
though I am sure the software is perfectly usable for all sorts of things by
non-teacher adults, but the website info is poor on other info and appears
to be aimed at the widest possible range of age groups, the tools in the
software appear to  have oversized icons that would appeal to kids, and the
way the mind map diagrams are constructed is in a simplified, but seemingly
easier for students to understand manner. The icons and images have a 'for
kids' look that I am not so keen on, and maybe a bit of a Windows or Mac OS
9 look about it too (I am one of these people who did not like computers at
all until OS X came along). Also, a website that is full of photographs of
smiling kids is a put off for me. The kid size tool icons would annoy me
every time I looked at them, it is software that I would not enjoy looking
at every day.

While Inspiration is clearly better than Tinderbox, it does not have so much
of the true mind map feel that I was seeking, and besides being cheaper, the
NovaMind site has straight forward (and extensive) tutorials aimed
exclusively at adults, and the first 'taste' of the software is very
promising and matches what is said about it.

Thank you for your concern,
Tony,
http://www.tonyjohansen.com
A Life In Art