This is an excellent article about concept maps and mind maps: the difference between them, how to create them, how to use them in education.

I spoke with the Lucid Chart guys at ISTE2016. They were more than willing to explain how these tools (free to me at my school) would help my students understand concepts.

I especially like the skeleton map where the kids fill it in from a word bank. It gives them the idea of what they could create for themselves–perhaps when they make their own study guides–while checking for understanding in a straightforward way. And with Hapara and Google sharing, I can see what they’ve done.

Hang on though because the article veers into how businesses and health care organizations could use a concept map. You need to skip down to the end of the article to find the how-to create instructions.