E-Mind Maps as an innovative teaching tool Dr. Mohamed Elnaggar Assistant Professor of E-Learning Technologies National Egyptian E-Learning University Introduction A mind map is a diagram used to visually organize information where a central concept branches out with subtopics from center outwards. Also it is hierarchical and shows relationships among pieces of the whole. Mind Maps Importance Mind map is simply the best tool as it involves your whole brain during learning and it is a visual tool to generate ideas and develop concepts, teachers should use it at learning. Mind Maps Advantages The most advantages and benefits of Mind maps can be summarized in the following points: • Make presentations and lessons more enjoyable both for the teacher or student. • Provide flexibility to teacher materials • provides deep understanding for the subject Mind Maps Advantages • learner could summaries about 10 to 1000 pages of traditional notes in just on big mind map. • Give the mind a whole structure of any subject. • Enhance understanding and recalling information. Using Mind Maps in Education Mind maps always begin with a core concept or idea which is often represented with an image or single word in the center of a page. Once the core concept has been chosen and visualized, branches are then created that represent single words which connect to the main concept. From there, sub-branches can be created that further develop ideas and concepts from the main branches. All of the ideas and concepts are connected to the overall theme of the whole mind map; this allows the teacher to engage students with the bigger picture as well as the finer details. Through that students can understand the interconnectivity between ideas. Using Mind Maps in Education Mind maps can be created in two key stages – brainstorming and mind mapping. The brainstorming stage is also known as the “free thinking” stage where the idea is first visualized and written in the middle of the page. In the second stage, students can begin to map the relationships between the ideas and crucially identify the type of relationship between the ideas. E-Mind Maps Electronic mind map is one of the active learning strategies and they are effective tools that enhance memory, retrieval of information and generate new creative ideas as they work at the same steps of a human mind which activate both human spheres and arrange information in a way helps the mind to read and remember information instead of linear thinking. E-Mind Maps It looks like Free creative Sketches based on specialized computerized programs and they consist of branches radiating from the center lines using words and symbols, colors, and are used to represent relationships between ideas, information and require spontaneous thinking during creating. E-Mind Maps Components Electronic Mind Maps have six major components • Lines: to connect ideas. • Arrows: collect the common ideas and organize them from general to specific and vice versa. • Geometric shapes: such as square, circle, rectangle ..etc • Pictures: considering that’s a thousand word equal a picture, • Colors: stimulate memory and enhance creativity. • Symbols: powerful as pictures to visualize concepts. E-Mind Maps Software Some of the most popular and effective examples of mind mapping software available in education today are MindMeister, MindMaple, Inspira tion, mindmapper professional, matchware, The Brain, and Bubbl.us, also you can use Microsoft office to create E-Mind map. E-Mind Maps Production with MatchWare MindView Lets together Produce simple E-Mind Map .