Mind Maps
This week, I’m going to let you all into the secret behind the success of DecTech, Mind Maps. A Mind Map is a visual way of interacting with linked ideas or concepts. It is basically a diagram made up of ideas linked together. An Idea consists of a word in a shape, normally a circle. To express the relationship between ideas, we use arrows called links. You can move around ideas and links as much as you want. You can customize your diagram with pictures, to make an idea stand out.

How can I use mind maps?
In a lecture, try drawing a Mind Map to take notes, the added task might just keep you awake. Or draw up your lecture notes as a mind map to help you revise. Mind Maps make reviewing material easier, as you don’t have to look over pages of notes. They also make the ideas a lot clearer.

Mind Maps are also useful for essays, projects or articles. You can explore different orders of ideas as well as viewing everything in one page. It will make the essay easier, especially if you can’t think where to start. Mind Maps are great for brain storming. Every two weeks, DecTech starts life as a mind map. Without it, I couldn’t work out how to structure my article.

How do you make mind maps?
Well this is in DecTech for a reason. Inspiration is a mind mapping software programme that is installed on every PC on campus. Go to programs and launch inspiration. Think of something you want to do, an essay or project, article or revision. When you start the programme, you will be in design view. This means you can start drawing your mind map straight away.

Click in the bubble in the middle of the screen. Delete the text and write the main theme of your mind map. Now, let’s add some other ideas. Click the red lightning bolt or hit Ctrl+R. When the red lightning bolt appears, type other ideas related to the first one, separate them by hitting enter. You can do this in any idea. You don’t have to just make bubbles, in the image pallet, click or search for an image.

Click on the outline view. This displays your diagram in text and you can re-order sections.

Click ‘Export’ button, click ‘ok’ twice and it will load word. This will export outline view and design view into word, so you get an outline and a diagram. You can delete the diagram and use the outline to write your essay. You can use the diagram to explain your big idea to other people, or to upload the image to the internet.

Here’s a screen shot of Inspiration and a Mind Map I used to explain some ways of fixing your computer. Follow it at your own peril! I've added it in photos.

Thanks for reading. If you have any questions or topic you would like me to cover, email me at Declan.p.meenagh@nuim.ie. I have stopped doing computer help in the Speak Easy due to a lack of interest, but you can still email me with any computer related questions.
Happy Christmas and New Year, may you get many cool gadgets. Hopefully Mind Maps will help you not fail the exams; that’s what I’m hoping anyway!

This week, I spoke to Eamonn and Ruth, two Maynooth students who built a website. It’s called noothcreative.ie and it’s to showcase creative work from Maynooth students in the areas of film, music, photography, multimedia, drama and literature. It is designed to let other students critique submissions and for prospective employers to see your work.

I talked to Ruth about the project

Q: How did you come up with and develop the idea?

A: The idea spurred from a simple need to showcase students work in the hope that it could increase competitiveness and creativity. We started off by designing a site where students could have their own personal portfolios but due to strong competition we decided that a showcase might be more of a compelling idea. The hope is that once the site attains a significant viewership, prospective employers would get wind of it and see the work. Not only will individual students be able to guide employers to their creative accomplishments but the whole university could gain a stronger name in the creative arts, which it deserves.

Q: How did you make the site?

A: We pursued the idea last Summer. Eamonn has a good knowledge of web design so he began to put up the actual site. We have changed the whole design since and will probably change it again when the site begins to grow.

Q: How hard was it to build the site?

A: It was a learning process that brought about alot of roadblocks, from legal issues to CSS web design it really has been a very challenging, but hopefully, a rewarding project.

Noothcreative.ie is online now, so go have a look and submit some work. In a future issue, I’ll talk about ways to build websites, what is WISIWIG and building Bebo applications. If you have any comments, questions or suggestions, email them to declan.p.meenagh@nuim.ie and don’t forget the speak easy on Tuesdays from 1.30 for computer help.

I’m doing a multiple part series on a big topic called
THE INTERNET AND THE WWW!
This isn’t about text book definitions; it’s just to explain what’s behind the web services you use every day.

The internet is a global network of linked computers. The World Wide Web is a set of documents linked together. The words Internet and the WWW aren’t interchangeable. The Internet can be used to access the world wide web along with other services like gaming, chat and email.
The USA created ARPA, Advanced Research Projects Agency, in 1958 in response to Sputnik. ARPA created the ARPANET in 1969, which connected universities in LA and California. The term internet was first used in 1974.
The World Wide Web was invented by Sir Tim Berners-Lee. It was published by CERN in 1991. Today’s internet has tons of cool new features including Blogs, Podcasts and Wiki’s. The word Blog came from web log, and is a page with regularly updated posts usually of a similar theme. Recent research found there were 112 million blogs on the internet. I’ll talk about Podcasts and Wiki’s in more detail soon, but basicly, a Podcast is audio or video delivered by a feed on the internet. Wiki’s are pages built and edited by multiple people. The most popular example of this is Wikipedia, however wiki’s can be useful for smaller projects as well.
To get on the internet you need something to put up and somewhere to publish it.
Content is what you want to publish on the internet. Lets look at some reasons to do this:
-A club or society can use a website to promote events and let members keep in touch.
-Having a personal blog with regular updates can help friends keep in touch with you and promote yourself to future employers.
-The internet is a great place to run a campaign as all the services you’ll need are free.
Perhaps the best place to start is Bebo. If you were to build a website yourself, users would have to register to post comments and use forums. Everyone is already on Bebo, so they have accounts and they won’t need to register. Most clubs and societies have a Bebo group and find it useful.
I asked Sinéad Wright, Co-President of the GLB why they use bebo.
“We use Bebo because we saw it as the most active network on Campus. It was blocked from Long Corridor because it was so popular that people couldn’t get a computer.”
What features do you find useful?
“The blogs and polls have been useful for the name change. The blogs allow people to respond to upcoming events.”
I’ve just recently started using Facebook. It has similar features to Bebo, but a different interface. It isn’t as popular in Ireland, but it is growing, so keep an eye on it.
If social networks aren’t your thing, why not check out Google’s Blogger. Blogger gives you a webpage where you can post updates with text, pictures or videos. There are really easy settings to change the look or what appears on the page. Just head over to www.blogger.com to check it out, and to see it in action, go to declan06.blogspot.com.
But if lengthy posts aren’t your thing perhaps you want to start Twittering. Twitter lets you answer the question ‘What are you doing?’ Your posts are limited to 140 characters, so it doesn’t take too long to update. There is a big community in Twitter, and you can message other users. You can also send updates from your mobile phone. Get started at www.twitter.com or check it out at www.twitter.com/dagda.
What if you want a combination of the above? The idea of Tumblr is to let you post whatever you want, if it’s just a few words, a long post or photo, audio, video or link. Check it out at www.tumblr.com or see it in action at dagda.tumblr.com.
In a later issue I’ll cover more advanced web development Including how to set up a CMS and how to write your own site from scratch. If you have any questions or want something featured in DecTech, email declan.p.meenagh@nuim.ie and don’t forget to come to The Speakeasy