Fine Tuning Your World

Sunday, October 17, 2010

BP9_AR Web 2.0 Tool


Spicy Nodes

You may have noticed the graphics I have recently been posting on this blog. Recently I was exposed to something that is helping me tremendously these days that I want to share. Since I commented on Angela Dixon's blog I have been using SpicyNodes. It is a great web 2.0 tool that is helping me map out my action research project. This concept mapping tool is extremely beneficial to me as I can lay out my ideas and connect them with a synthesis of my resources, research and goals to create the plan that I need.

With SpicyNodes I can make notes easily and organize them with the very user friendly design. SpicyNodes creates amazing concept maps that makes this process interesting and fun. The graphic design of the templates is simple and clean. The notes do not seem cluttered and when highlighted give me room to explore with more depth and focus a particular area of my research or plan may take me.

I plan to use this tool to synthesize the data that I am finding from my various AR sources. While reading articles it is helpful to drop ideas or quotes in a place that can be reviewed so easily. Each new entry insures that I can see my plan unfold even more. So it supports a healthy cycle of reading and inputing data (kinesthetic learning) and seeing the benefits through a great graphic display. I believe that SpicyNodes is excellent and I am so thankful I visited my classmate Angela Dixon's blog.

In the future SpicyNodes will help me to lay out concepts for my students, my parents, my staff, my board members, and my clients. It's simplistic user interface and its simple final presentation makes great use of space without popups or new tabs. I will be using this tool quite a bit I am certain of it and I will also be telling others really soon.  I hope that someone else finds the usefulness of this wonderful tool. Click here to visit www.spicynodes.org. Send me a good one when you can!


Thanks for reading, and have a good day!

Terrance

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1 comment:

  1. elizabeth ashleyOctober 17, 2010 at 3:27 PM

    This tool looks like a lot of fun!! I just went to the website and played around with their demo. It would definitely keep the students attention and get them excited about learning. If I was back in the classroom, I would want my teacher to use Spicynodes! It is a much more interactive way then just having everyone write on paper and not share it. I am glad you were able to utilize it for your Action Research Project. I unfortunately need to print everything out and read the hard copy. I am thinking, however, that when I want to take notes, I could use Spicynoded on my electronic copy. I won't lose post-it notes that way!

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