Personal Techonology Project: Mindmeister

In deciding what I thought would be the most important and useful technology to learn about for use in my future classroom, I was torn between Accelerated Reader and Mindmeister, but I settled on Mindmeister because I felt that it would be useful for students to use in their learning and I also felt that I would probably end up actually using it more than I would Accelerated Reader. I signed up for an account with Mindmeister and I'm excited to learn more about it. The reason I chose this technology is that I feel that one of the most important things I can teach my students that will help them in their learning is to not be afraid to share ideas and to talk about the texts that we read. Discussion is the best way to discover things about a text. I know that for myself, when other people's perspectives and ideas are brought into a text I am reading, it adds a whole new dimension to my understanding. And so I feel that discussion is absolutely essential to learning about literature. However, I understand that not all students are comfortable participating in class discussions and they might be afraid that their ideas are stupid or invalid. I have traditionally been one of the shyer students in my classes as well so I understand where they're coming from. This would be a great way for students to share ideas about a text without forcing them to do something that they may be very uncomfortable with. I want the sharing of ideas to be a positive experience and so I think that this technology might be incredibly useful in allowing students to share ideas in a less scary setting.