Transcript

WILLIAM

We have introduced you within the material to the concept of mind map. And I thought I'd do now just to make it a bit more interactive is give a quick demonstration of the rationale behind mind map. So you all know the origin of it rests with a guy called Tony Buzan (1942–2019), who developed this quite a number of years ago. But I've always found it particularly useful for a number of reasons.

The first is in recall. So we are more inclined to take notes when we're attending lectures and stuff. And now we have to sift through the notes to try and recall what it is we heard from the lecturer or whatever. But the other reason behind it is for quickly generating ideas. And according to Buzan, what we are actually doing when we use mind maps is what he calls whole-brain thinking.

So the notion is if we consider that this is our brain, by large, it's in two sections. We have the right and the left. And what Buzan claims is we're more prone conventionally to use the left side of the brain, which is the linear side whereby what we do is we make lists, we make numbers, we make sequences. And one follows other and so on and so forth.

And when we record notes like that, as I said earlier, we have to sift through them to extract what is more relevant. But according to his thinking, if we use whole-brain thinking, the right shade of the brain is the more creative side. And within this, we're talking about spatial awareness, we're talking about colour, we're talking about imagery, and so on and so forth.

So our idea of using the mind map was to at least try and get you to think of some of these things, like community, aspirations, and choices in a whole-brain approach. So, in other words, to see the big picture. And the way they introduce you to a mind map then is do the most basic one. Do a mind map on yourself. And to lead by example, I'm going to do that now.