Thing #14

My Bubbl.us brainstorm. Planning a field trip contest.


My Gliffy Factoring Flow Chart.

I'll be honest. I selected these two services to sign up for because they were the first of each type listed by my instructor. I was to explore and test flow chart producer and a brainstorm producer. I could readily see the advantages of each. The flow chart is much more flexible and able to produce many cross links and interesting designs. The brainstorm has much less flexibility. The new bubbles are created automatically with the press of a button and do not need to be drawn in like the ones in the flow chart. This gives speed in exchange for the power to fully customize. As the name implies, the brainstorm allows one to move rapidly from idea to idea without taking time to switch from the bubble tool to the line tool. One can focus ones efforts on the ideas being explored rather than the design. The flow chart is far better for considering the audience and adjusting the organization and appearance accordingly. I must say I enjoyed the fast pace of the brainstormer and would probably use the brain stormer as a kind of"prewriting" to produce my next flowchart. I will definitely show the Field trip flow chart to the other members of my department to help finalize plans for this year's contest and to make adjustments in how we plan and implement next year. This is fine since all my fellow math dept. members have a basic understanding of what the contest is about and just need reminders and a basic, easily modified layout to keep us on track and possibly to spark ideas about how to improve our process. I think the flowchart maker would be good for students to use to create documents for their own use as well as projects to present to the class. Making the chart about factoring really made me think about the process involve. I know students would benefit from the planning and thought involved in creating one of these