SmartDraw is a windows-only application for creating calendars, drawing organizational charts, flowcharts, network diagrams, or any type of concept map. It is commercial software but does have a free trial.
Although perhaps not as flashy, CmapTools is an open source, free, cross-platform software tool for concept mapping. Inspiration is a popular commercial concept mapping software tool in educational contexts (which I have enthusiastically endorsed previously) but is much more costly than a free tool like CmapTools.
Do you have another concept mapping application you like besides these? If so please comment here and provide a link to the tool. 🙂
Jan Lanzing’s Concept Mapping Homepage is a bit dated but does have links to other software alternatives.
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Comments
5 responses to “Concept Mapping tools”
Freemind is pretty mature. I haven’t really used it because I’m an OmniGraffle junkie.
http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
Yes, I forgot about OmniGraffle for Mac OS X, I have used that a bit and like it too:
http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnigraffle/
GoKnow’s PicoMap for Palm and Pocket PC is a simple but effective concept mapping program designed for students. The best feature? Any node can link to other files in the Handheld Learning Environment… text files, spreadsheet files, drawings, animations, and even other PicoMaps.
http://goknow.com/Products/PiCoMap/
I have quite a comprehensive list of mindmapping / concept mapping options at http://www.shambles.net/pages/school/mindmaps/
Of special interest to educators … and several are free.
Hope this is helpful
Chris
I recommend this concept mapping tool called Creately to draw concept maps and many diagram types. There are 100s of concept map templates and examples to be used freely.